Sorceries | Dark Souls 3 Wiki

I hate to say it but Dark Souls 3 is the crappiest Souls game for running sorceries. I just went through the whole game on a Magic run and most bosses were a frustrating mess. Magic in Dark Souls 1 and Dark Souls 2 was far better balanced with the way bosses were.

Fromsoftware got a massive boner after making Bloodborne bosses and thought they should literally import them into Dark Souls 3 where they are always in your face and flailing around, making magic hard mode in Dark Souls 3.

Not to mention, they thought it would be a great idea to give almost every boss magic resistance. Fromsoftware forgot they were working on a new Dark Souls and they still had a massive veiny throbbing hard-on for Bloodborne.

Dark Souls III is a great game, just don't expect to have fun doing a magic run. Basically expect to use Magic Great Sword, Great Heavy Soul Arrow, Crystal Soul Spear, and in certain situations Pestilent Mist and Soul Stream for a few cheese moments.

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*strafes*

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Respecing into Sorcery in NG+ feels hilariously overpowered. I breezed through anything that wasn't explicitally magic resistant, and even then it was easy enough to switch to Pyromancies for those parts with the high INT. Followed that up with a few hours of putting down my summon sign and help people dunk completely on Twin Princess, Nameless King, Gael, Midir... People who say Sorceries aren't good in this game are crazy.

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magic looks so much more fun in elden ring, no offense to fromsoft but it's unfortunate they missed so many opportunities with this game.

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The Crystal Hail tab line description has a link problem. The Crystal Sage link has a "+" at the end of the url ùaking the link incorrect :)

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Magic in this game is way too equipment depended.

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Just played as a pure sorcerer for the first time after deS, ds1, ds2 and oh boy, it's so bad I just stopped playing after reaching profaned capital.

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Is the trophy only for the main game sorceries? Or do you need to get the dlc ones as well?

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it seems old moonlight isn't necessary for the master of sorceries achievement
I don't have it but I got the achievement

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If you want to maximize your damage output with dark sorceries, just do the following:

Make sure the following is equipped:

- Helmet: Blindfold Mask (10% damage bonus to dark spells)
- Left Hand: Morion Blade (20% bonus to any damage output while being held)
- Right Hand: another Morion Blade (another 20% bonus to any damage output while being held)
- Right Hand: Murky Longstaff + 10

Rings:

- Dark Clutch Ring (10% damage bonus to dark spells)
- Young Dragon Ring (12% damage bonus to sorceries)
- Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring (20% damage bonus to sorceries)
- Red Tearstone Ring (20% to any damage output when your HP is below 20%)

The plan:

1. Cast Affinity;
2. Cast Power Within, to get an extra 20% damage bonus;
3. Hold both Morion Blades
4. Profit. Your Affinity spell is flying towards your victim with a total 352.55% of its original power!

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look how they massacred my boy

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So I royally ****ed up and sold a few miracles I picked up as ground loot before I considered getting them all. Does anyone know if they respawn in NG+?

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Dusk Crown Ring on this page says it reduces HP by 20%, but the Dusk Crown Ring's page says it reduces HP by 15%. So which is it?

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Bet they can't beat Goku tho

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If you do the math on the damage output of the all arrow sorceries and use the damage of Soul Arrow as the basis, it shows that Crystal Soul Spear is actually the worst in terms of damage for FP cost. The FP cost goes up by 660%, while the damage only increases by 240%. I guess the trade off is faster projectile speed, which is better for PvP.

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been over a decade and these idiots still dont know how to balance magic in pvp

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RIP hexes. So few made it over to ds3 from ds2 and the few that did were absorbed by other magic branches.

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Hey so, I have a question about the soul greatsword and farron flashsword. Can you parry them?
The spell parry only talks about projectiles, but they're basically magical swords.
So do regular parry works, do people need spell parry, or do you just have to dodge or block?

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spook

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I'm just gonna say it. Ds2 did magic wayyy better than 3

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if you mage behind a gank squad go **** yourself

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mages aka the caboose of the gank squad

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literally used by the worst players in the game, usually at the back of a gank squad spamming trash

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ahahahahah AHAHAHAHHAHA, you serious?

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I have all sorcery but I can't obtain the trophy, why?

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Me - professional scrubs slayer: Used pkcs R1 on sorceries scrub.
IT'S SUPER EFFECTIVE!

Sorceries scrub - Unskilled coward: Used useless shiitty spell on Me.
THE ATTACK MISSED!

Result: Sorceries scrub got owned and pooped on

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Damage/FP-wise, great heavy soul arrow is the only logical spell in PVE if you go pure sorc. Well, except for pestilent mist when you want to kill Midir. The soul spears do just a little more damage but consume so much more HP I dont see the point of using them. Which I think is a shame because you get GHSA pretty early in the game and the rest is up to stats/gear to improve damage which feels a lot less satisfying to me.

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I got the achiviement without the sorcery from Midir's Soul.

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Dont let the spells distract you from the fact that hisokas hatsu has both the properties of rubber AND gum

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I played DS1 as a pure sorcerer and had a blast. I could deal a lot of damage but Bosses were still tough and the final fight with Gwyn was extremely tough. The dude was so quick that I couldn't hit him with my sorceries with any kind of regularity. Took a while to figure that out. In DS2 I decided to switch things up with a pure melee. I didn't have anywhere near as much fun, but that was probably because pretty much every boss in that game was easy or poorly designed (with a few exceptions). Play style was definitely different, but I missed that variation that came with magical ability. Decided to go back to magic for DS3 and found I'd lost my ability to dodge so now I'm having to re-learn how to be effective again, but I am having a grand old time.

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does young dragon ring and bellowing dragon ring stack? I feel like this isa stupid question to ask but can someone tell me

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i read a few time that great heavy soul arrow was the most efficient magic projectil spell, and did a few test at varying spell multipliers, items and intelligence.
it never beat heavy soul arrow (it does more damage, but less than the 14/11 ratio of the cost)
did i miss something ?

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Added items, proper locations and links, reformatted the text on the page to be consistent, now page consists everything you need for the Sorcerer.

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i did a BattleSorcerer build, and it went great so far, here's my current equipment: ARMORS - full nameless knight set. WEAPONS - ON THE RIGHT HAND >> crystal infused halberd+10 (for small or medium sized enemies that can be easily stunlocked by it, and also against greatshield enemies), crystal infused broadsword+10 (for big or huge sized enemies that can't be stunned by the halberd) and eretic's staff+10. ON THE LEFT HAND >> priest's chime+10 (for the gentle prayer regeneration and spell power multiplier), simple infused lothric knight's shield+6 (simple infused to regenerate FP, and i upgraded to +6 for higher stability and faster regeneration, i only used the titanite shards and large titanites that i bought from the handmaid though) and pyromancer's parting flame+10. RINGS - Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring, Life Ring+3, Ring of Favor+3, Prisoner's Chain. SPELLS - FOR PVE >> Crystal Soul Spear, Chaos Bed Vestiges, Homeward (because i traded the coiled sword fragment with pumparum for a Titanite Slab, and i will probably always do it) FOR PVP >> Deep Soul and Great Soul Dregs FOR BOTH PVP AND PVE >> Deep Protection and Sacred Oath (stacked for big buff), Great Heal, Hidden Body and Spook (stacked for stealth and only spook for fall damage avoidance) a total of 10 spells that never ever have failed me on my most needed moments. STATS - 62 VIG, 47 ATT, 39 END, 44 VIT, 55 STR, 49 DEX, 67 INT, 59 FTH, 22 LCK. and that's it, i'm on my NG++ (NG+2) and i'm at irithyll right now, and i've been doing great with this build so far, even in PvP where i win around 2/3 (70% to be more specific) and i just wanted to share my build with you guys :D

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i love how everyone just hates using magic ranged attacks and just rather using weapon arts, but then just get rekt by spells like deep soul, soul dregs and chaos bed vestiges lol, that's why i've been always used ranged combat and melee as my secondary but i never use weapon arts because they waste FP that i could use for more effective spells that would decimate the health of any enemy, the light and heavy attacks and sometimes the L1 attack for the paired-weapons are enough, i dont need weapon arts except maybe for the splitleaf greatsword that does not costs FP

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Dark Clutch Ring not listed in Sorcery Enhancement Items and Catalysts...

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kurwy z roxy ile tego

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Rip casters FP made them boring af

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Sorcery is my favorite class ever. I’m melee & range glass canon. (Enchant weapon fast moving around etc...) Wouldn’t play any other class but sorcerer/pyro/faith build.

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Man for PVE sorceries suck

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Do young dragon ring and bellowing Dragoncrest ring stack?

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No hyperarmor on the swords is a crime. Imagine Aldrich doing his purple blade and each time he intends to swing it around you tackle him slightly. And he has to start again. It's that bad actualy.

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Say I only put points in intelligence and attunement with a sorcerer starting class, then one-hand a Refined double broken sword that deals 1 damage a parry critical as my best weapon despite being better off with magic, and cant reallot stats cause I already transposed Rosaria's soul. What then?

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I would like to learn how to cast spells on people

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Resistant or not .pure magic with crystal spear turns almost all bosses into sad jokes Holy shet knocking off lothric off Lorian 3 times per minute is funniest shet ever

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can someone help me through the catacombs of carthus?

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Do I need the DLC spells for the achievement?

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HOW is there little to no info about catalyst stamina modifier for spells on the internet? It took me like 10 seconds to notice that Heretic's Staff takes about 12.5% more stamina than Sorcerer's Staff for any spell. Longer staves take about 12.5% more stamina to cast spells, and medium staves about 6.25% (rough guess). Sorcerer's staff is considered short and SCS is the longest medium one. This knowledge makes some of the longer staves even worse than they already were. Here's a video with an example: I wonder if this was meant to balance Farron Flashsword range variation, but you don't need a long flashsword, because the three other blade spells cover that area.

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i wish this game had Dark Hail from DkS2 that acted like Dark Bead from the first game, as neat as great soul dregs it's not a shotgun type spell which makes it's effectiveness per cost not great. It's hard playing as a sorcerer my stats are pretty high for SL127 but some bosses like Midir are resistant as heck towards dark :(

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These don't suck in pvp. everyone builds glass cannons, while great for pve are terrible pvp. If you want to pvp well with sorcs run a spell sword build. you only need like 18-24 points attainment for spells I mean with ashen flask and the great fp ratios of sorceries I don't feel a difference between this and my full mage build in pve at all, yet can pvp really well.

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Check out the series 'Intelligence kills' in whichall 25 bosses are beaten by pure magic build (just google Intelligence kills + boss' name)

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If you have the dlc do you need to get all the dlc sorceries? I'm asking for all rings, miracles, and pyromancies roo.

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F^&* every ganky sorcerer who uses the Court Sorcerer Staff and Crystal Soul Spear........

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Why the heck is there no sorcery that deals physical damage? There's two for miracles and one for pyromancies (okay, that one is a complete joke) but none for sorceries. Sorcerers get screwed over once again.

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guys...i killed the lady that teaches u more sorceries by accident...wtf do i do now... i had one more tome to give her still

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Master of sorceries can you get it in of character that has a spells in more than one run or does it have to be done all in ones?

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Do i need dlc spells to get the achievment?

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I have all of them but i didnt get the trophy

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loyds sword ring can also boost sorceries

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I’m trying to get “master of sorceries” and I have every sorcery on this list. (Even DLC) Almost all are on one character, but crystal hail, cast light, repair, hidden weapon, hidden body, and twisted wall of light are on a different character. Between the two I have all the sorceries, but still haven’t gotten the achievment. Anyone know why? Help if you can. . .

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worst class in every possible way in pve

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Priestess Ring could be added to the list of items enhancing sorceries, since some catalysts scale with faith. Also Dark Clutch Ring.

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Doing a twink build with just 18Attunement and 32 INT is just so dang easy. If anyone sees this and is interested. Sorcerer starter class. Put all souls gained from start to Gundyr and maybe Crystal Lizard, or save Lizard for later... put all souls into INT first, OR you can do 2 into ATT then buy Farron Dart from Handmaiden, it's okay for some invasions but not all, GFD is best obviously But FD will do. Don't have anyone drop you Sage Ring or Dusk crown, cause you're skipping the Cursewood Settlement boss and running through Road of Sacrifices to pick up the rSage ring there, and then running down to Farron Swamp to get the Farron and Golden Scrolls... Also make sure to rescue Yoel and do the free lvl ups if you seem to lag behind on the Souls, but yes his level ups are good, and he sells you Soul Greatsword a bit earlier than Orbeck. Undead Settlement can be used as a PVP area same with Cruxificion Woods since the Abyss Watchers are the true boss for that area. Since we already got Deep Soul from past toons then we can use Deacons Soul for Clerics Candlestick when this build changes for later invasions... BUT for this build I used only Sages Crystal Staff for the steady chant and the Sorcerers staff for right handing the spells, I don't have Scholars yet, but can buy it later. Obviously the staff is dropped from someone else, also have them drop the Bellowing Dragoncrest ring... maybe even the Magic Clutch if you want that extra 2%? Or 10%? The Heretics staff has lower Spellbuff going pass 30 so you don't need it, plus using Farron Flashsword with longer staves only puts you at risk of doing 1 damage from hitting the enemy player with the staff and not the Flashsword...though, if timed right, the extra length of the staff may help in certain battles. Spellbuff is from INT but the Steady Chant is from STR since the Heretics needs an 8 You may use a point for Heretics, but Sorcerers Staff will be used mostly... Spell set up for me is Flashsword, GSA, and either GHSA or Greatsword... or replace Flashsword with Dark Hand and then use some kind of side spell like Snap Freeze or Hidden Body to give you a couple seconds though, you can join Rosaria, so really it only leaves Sirris out of your line. Obscuring Ring. If you need some fashion I see that Clerics set, Leather, or Pale Shade, Yuria dress, Sellsword with Sorcerers hood. Also Sages Big Hat.... With the items boosting damage and the steady chant from Sages and then firing spells from the 133 Spellbuff Sorcerers staff you can damage almost 200 with GSA and 330 with Greatsword Flashsword or Dark Hand with give Great damage with quick attacks... It's all good for me!

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I've done this sort of thing before, and someone else has even just done it again recently, but I figure I might as well go over useful spells again, but this time for invasions specifically. Yes, it does end up a bit different, with different tactics. So, my standard setup has these spells: Homing Crystal Soulmass, Snap Freeze, Crystal Soul Spear, White Dragon Breath, Crystal Hail. Great Farron Dart, Farron Flashsword, and Soul Greatsword.

Homing Crystal Soulmass: I always cast this first, unless the host or their phantoms are already on me when I spawn in. It's dead useful for getting some room at the start of the fight, or landing a cheeky hit right at the start. It's also brilliant for nuking blues that are too thirsty, by facing away from them until they get close, starting a cast of Crystal Soul Spear or White Dragon Breath, and then doing a 180 and insta-killing them. The soulmass will stagger them, and then the other spell with finish them off before they can roll. If you're not locked on, people have to be closer to you to trigger it, meaning you can start casting a spell, lock on to someone, and have the soulmass stagger them so they can get obliterated by the other spell. You can also cast this if you're low on stamina, and then face away from the person you're fighting. They'll be expecting you to do a 180, and will stay back. This gives you plenty of time to regen some stamina.

Snap Freeze: Useful for two things: creating an area of cover that most players won't enter, which buys you time to estus or cast a slow spell, and it also works to punish people who are just holding their shield up and standing in a small area. If you're standing on one side of the cloud, there will also be a point where it becomes completely opaque, so a Crystal Soul Spear can catch the person you're invading by surprise.

Crystal Soul Spear: Does lots of damage. Try to catch people off guard when you cast this, or when they're busy with something and can't dodge it, since it'll almost never hit someone who's ready to dodge.

White Dragon Breath: I only started using this today, but it has paid off multiple times already. Its casting time is slightly different from Crystal Soul Spear's, which helps catch people with it, since the casting animation is the same so they roll at the wrong time. It's also good for hitting people who are on ladders, since it can travel up and down walls. The fact that it hits really hard, for only 25 focus, is also pretty good.

Crystal Hail: This will probably never kill anyone, even if they're low. What it will do consistently though, is make them panic roll. Use this if you need to estus, or if the person is really low on health, where any hit will kill them. Just spam Great Farron Dart, and hope for a hit.

Great Farron Dart: I use this when I'm not being given a lot of time to cast, but want to land ranged hits. I also use it when the invasion has been going on for a bit, and I'm starting to run low on focus and ashen estus. It can also be good for spamming down people who are turtling behind a shield, since it's so cheap. Use this in conjunction with Farron Flashsword for damage at a low cost, and swap between them to keep people on their toes.

Farron Flashsword: Good for fighting straight sword users who can't take hits well. If they're trying to R1 spam you down, turn the tables on them and do the same thing to them. It's also good against slow weapons, but you have to pace your hits and be careful. Try to land one hit at a time, and then roll through their attacks. Also good for when you're at low focus. This is basically a straight sword, so use it like one. It does rolling attacks, and also running attacks, so if you mix regular attacks with the other two ways, you can get some respectable damage. Just remember that it can be parried, so watch out. If you think they're about to parry, switch to Great Farron Dart, and surprise them.

Soul Greatsword: Good for catching people with its reach, and does good damage. You can combo it with Homing Crystal Soulmass to deal some solid damage. It's also amazing for catching people through walls, since they don't expect it. If they're on one side of a thin wall, or about to round a corner, you can cast this and smack them for a free hit. Try it on the stones around the Mausoleum Lookout, where people hide to avoid the arrows. You can usually land a hit or two doing this.

This isn't all that's useful, but it's 8 spell slots, so it's what I use. Other spells to consider are Homing Soulmass (some people swear by it, but I don't bother with it), Farron Hail (good for landing some low damage hits for a low cost, like Great Farron Dart), Great Soul Arrow (good damage for a moderate cost), Soul Stream (use this with the obscuring ring and binoculars to land long range hits on people), Old Moonlight (if you land both the sword and projectile on a charged hit, it will out damage a Crystal Soul Spear), and Affinity (same as Homing Soulmass).

Some tips for invading:

Stamina regens even when casting, except slower, and only for part of the cast. Use this fact to get the most of your stamina. Instead of waiting for full stamina, wait until you're close to full, and start casting. Once you've learned your cast times and regen rate, you can get significantly more out of your stamina than you would expect.

A good setup for estus is two regular, five ashen. You'll almost always be better than the people you invade, so you'll take fewer hits, and you'll need a lot of focus.
If you're looking for fast invasions, invade as a mad phantom, and bait people into a Homing Crystal Soulmass and Crystal Soul Spear combo. It'll kill most people in one go, letting you leave right away.

Try to avoid letting fights last for a while, since you can burn through a lot of focus. The exception is if you can kill summons without using lots of focus, in which case you're golden. Just ambush and nuke blues as they come in, and you can stay in good shape for 15+ minutes, if the host is cowardly enough.

Don't use estus until the host has, unless you're being ganked. You're going to have a lot less than they do, so they'll always be at an advantage. However, sometimes they will treat the fight as a duel, and won't estus until you do.

Some hosts are total cowards, who will try to wait you out. What I do, is put on a video on my other monitor, and watch that. Running around the area exploring is also a fun option, since you find some neat stuff you hadn't come across while playing through there normally.

If you a blue gets summoned, try to make sure they spawn in on the host's side so you don't get caught between them. Focus on the blue unless the host presents a good opportunity. Blues will usually rush in for a kill, and they're often not very experienced at fighting mages. Use this against them by throwing any dirty trick you have at them, and let them run into your casts. Kill a blue, and you get two of each flavour of estus, both citrus and blue raspberry. This is also one reason why you take two regular estus, so that you maximize your gain. If you abuse this, you can take a fight that's going poorly, and turn it around.

Corridors are your friend. If you can force people to only move forwards and back, you've cut out a lot of room for them to dodge.This makes it easier to fill the area with spells, to ensure that something hits them.

If you're being ganked, get to some enemies to form your own gank. Let the host and his phantoms fight them, and then jump out behind them while they're distracted and teach them the error of their ways. This is a good opportunity to see how hard your spells hit, since they won't be paying attention to you. A soulmass and Crystal Soul Spear will again make short work of one of them. Invading in areas you know well, with shortcuts and hiding spots, will be quite helpful.

While people advise against trading, your damage can be good enough to make it worth it. If you can tell the person's in one-shot range, try to bait them into a trade. They might not be thinking about how much damage you do, but pure sorcerers can put out more damage than people give them credit for. Sure you might take a 600 damage hit from their greatsword, but the 900 damage Crystal Soul Spear that kills them at the same time will matter a lot more.

If the person you're fighting is super passive, don't bother with any high damage spells. Instead, use low cost ones that you can spam, and try to rack up damage over time. They can roll forever, but you can only cast spells for 10 minutes, unless you're careful. Another option to combat this is to just leave them alone. Walk further into the area, and stand out of sight. Put on a video, read a book, check some websites, whatever. They'll eventually get bored of waiting for you to come back, and move on. Then, when they aren't paying attention, insta-kill them. They deserve it, and the following point down.

If you end up fighting someone using a weapon with Quickstep, counter it with Flashsword. You will hit for around the same damage, and if you time it right, you'll get counter damage as well. Just try to get a feel of when the person is likely to attack, and punish them. Do two swing combos for a bit, and then once they get comfortable, smack them with a third swing. If they let up, consider using a soulmass spell, and maybe Soul Greatsword.

If you are in a fight that's taking some time, and haven't used one of your spells yet, try to bait them into it. They might not expect something new to come out if it's been a few minutes, so it'll be easier to land it. You can also do this with a trick instead of a spell. Basically, try to not let the person know everything you can do, until they're dead. If that spell shares a casting animation with something you've already used, that's even better.

All in all, it's a fun way to PvP, that'll test some skills that playing the usual melee builds don't. Just keep your spell order consistent, learn to change spells as fast as possible without missing the one you want, and learn your cast times by heart. Do this, and you'll start a nice collection of tongues, vertebrae, and anything else you care to farm.

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Hmmm. Sorceries are quite fun indeed. Landing a css or hell soul stream is extremely fun to see. But as someone said before, this game is a knight brawl pvpwise. Homeboys act like extreme douchebags when they see the soulmasses hanging above you. If you have never played as a sorcerer in pvp hear me out:

- Learning curve is massive. This is espicially true if you are used to playing with ultra greats. You'll see people rushing to you like they saw the tightest p***y just wanting to smash and you gonna have to learn how to open space. For a starter tip, dont rely on flashsword too much, for your true strength is your ability to do damage from distance. Sureşy most matches will end with your clever use of flashsword but remember, people expect it. Dont ever trade with your flashsword.

- As stated above, never trade. Meta is heavily great/ultragreat swords, with their heavy range and arc and tremendous poise, you'll simply get 3 shot. Clever use of homing soulmass and snap freeze will give you the distance you'll want.

- You will feel the frustrastion when you see people dodging your spells simply by running left/right. Its really hard to land your spells on moving targets. Hell, even on standing targets. You'll need a lot of baiting via casting different spells and free aiming. This is not easy to learn, but with enough practice and cursing to gods for ever letting running attacks for ultragreats, you'll get the hang of it.

- Until you get to gold, using farron dart or its heavier version is better for your utility slot. For gold, using snap freeze and storyteller's staff wa is better because people expect darts. You are not an ultragreat brute, you just dont spam your R1. Make constant use of your utility spells. Those are farron darts, farron hail, crystal hail, white dragon breath and snap freeze. I dont recommend using pestilent mist for it damages you as well and often times it will get you killed.

- Your main spells should be great heavy soul arrow/great aoul arrow (tad bit faster but less damage), crystal soul spear, homing soul mass (not the crystal one, for its way slower) and finally your farron flashsword. Not great soulsword because you dont get poise and too slow.

I hope this will be helpfull. Smash those brutes with style. Peace!!

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git gud

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How do we give hin any of the scrolls if he is gone after abyss watchers?!?!

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I have all the sorcories including the dlcs and i still did not get the acheivement can anybody help me

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If I am only using Spook and Chameleon, I could use any old catalyst, right?

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As if it's not bad enough sorcerers are spam kings i did the math and with both sorcery rings, the crown, clutch ring, scholars stick, and crystal sages staff you can deal 280% damage per spell after buffing, idk if power within works on spell damage but if it does that would be 330% damage, or if flynns ring would work that would be nice.

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it says "Staves" in the area for spell boosting items...
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )

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if you plan to fight bosses it would be cool if you can dodge or at least use a great shield...you know...as the host in coop....might be good...for you and the other people.

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The image for Persistent mist's name is Persistent Mercury. Maybe change this.

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The soul spear(non crystal one) can also hit multiple enemies. Not sure if this was known.

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Weapons that can cast sorceries are missing from the equipment list. There is a warpick and a candle longword that work like the blue flame sword from DS 2. Heysel Pick and Deep Candle Stick

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i got every sorcerie on this list and dont get the achievement.... is there a spell missing in this list or have i done something wrong??

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Put a legend for the symbols on the chart, this isn't the fifth grade and I shouldn't have to scour the wiki to find something anyone could forget. The symbols are really similar and nondescript, not your fault I know but still.

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Sorcery only work optimally when used on a high INT build. SL120 Mixed INT builds don't get the full use out of these as it'll lose a huge chunk of damage.

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Thats not all or are they?

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Well, after playing a sorcerer for a bit with a more standard build, I got a better idea of what spells are and are not useful in PvP for pure sorcerers. I didn't use every spell, but just the ones I though would be most helpful, or just felt like trying. I also don't claim to be particularly good, and admit I can be wrong about things depressingly often, but in my experience this is what I found. This will probably be most useful for people new to sorceries, but maybe I can give some ideas to other people. After all, almost no one I fought used the same strategies I did, and no one used all of them.

Sorceries can be broken down into a few groups; Useless, Common Hitting, Rare But Worth It, and Space Makers/Openers.

Useless spells rarely doing much of anything, and consist of Pestilent Mercury (barely anyone ever takes damage from it, and it can sometimes spawn right on you when you cast it), Twisted Wall of Light (I barely ever had it deflect spells entirely, and often got hit by spells that were deflected downward. It also deflects your own spells, which can make things difficult), Soul Stream (that long cast time is begging for a backstab), and Old Moonlight (rarely lands a hit, and almost always deals less damage than Soul Greatsword). Sure, there are use cases for all of these spells where they can prove useful (Pestilent Mercury in a spot where the enemy can't escape, Twisted Wall of Light when fighting sorcerers using lots of slow spells, Soul Stream for well timed ambushes, and Old Moonlight for the same thing, as it will out damage a Crystal Soul Spear if you land both the blade and projectile, after charging it), but if you're just dueling people they will rarely, if ever, be worth using.

Common Hitting spells are Great Farron Dart, Farron Flashsword, and Farron Hail. They are quick, low damage attacks that are cheap to use, but can be useful for putting pressure on your opponent. Farron Hail requires a moderate distance between you and your target to be effective, but it can punish people who rush you. If they mess up their rolls, hitting for 400+ damage isn't too uncommon.

Rare But Worth It spells are where the real damage is, but balanced by low hit chances under normal circumstances. This is your Crystal Soul Spear, Soul Greatsword (if you're fighting a gank, this is more of a Common Hitting spell, since most gankers apparently don't know how to play the game. At times you can land more hits with it in one fight against gankers than you'll land in every fair duel you play that day, combined), Dark Edge, Great Soul Dregs, and last and also least, White Dragon Breath (it's borderline useless, but it's so rare for someone to cast it that you can catch people off guard if they think their height advantage will protect them). These spells will usually require some way of getting an opening, whether it be by using another spell, getting a parry, ambushing someone, etc., which is where the next group comes in.

Space Makers/Openers can give you some protection your (most likely) light armor will not. Homing Crystal Soulmass, Affinity, Crystal Hail, and Snap Freeze all work well for this, but with different uses. Homing Crystal Soulmass and Affinity are good if someone is getting up in your face, as it will generally force them to roll, which can set you up for a Flashsword or Soul Greatsword. If the problem is them not being up in your face, then sprinting at them and using Farron Flashsword just after they roll to avoid the orbs is also a good strategy. They're also good if you need more Focus, as you can use them to keep someone at bay for a few seconds. Crystal Hail is more useful for keeping people running for longer periods of time, but doesn't make them too afraid of attacking you if you start to look like an easy target. It's also good for punishing slow attacks if they think they can just tank the hits. Snap Freeze generally gets the best results, but can backfire pretty hard if the person you're fighting is aggressive enough. I usually use this to either buy time for an Ashen Estus Flask, or as a way of hiding my spell casts. If you can get the person to be all the way across the freezing cloud from you, it can be very hard to see through it. A Crystal Soul Spear can often catch people off guard, and a Soul Greatsword can get someone if they decide to rush you. Casting Homing Crystal Soulmass and then sprinting out of the cloud can also get a hit, since it's rather unexpected.

As an extra, I came up with a few tips for PvP, that tended to help me out. The biggest thing is to have many spells, with different cast times, and different effects. If you can keep switching up what you do, you can be unpredictable enough to make up for how easy spells are to dodge. If you just stack Attunement up to 50, you can use 7 spells without switching out one of your rings. This is pretty easy since you won't be relying on melee weapons as a pure sorcerer, so you just use the levels you'd normally put into Strength or Dexterity. I recommend using rolls to keep yourself moving for a second so you can concentrate on switching spells properly.
Another thing that worked was to not use every spell attuned, but rather intentionally cast certain spells for most of the fight to leave one or two as a surprise. I would cast Homing Crystal Soulmass a few times throughout a fight, and then when my opponent has gotten used to seeing me cast it, I would throw in a Crystal Soul Spear, which has the same casting animation. This let me smash people for 900+ damage simply because I lured them into a false sense of security. It's even better when you mix in Snap Freeze, so two minutes into a fight a random Crystal Soul Spear comes out of the cloud and cripples the unfortunate person who got to fight you.
If someone decides to run and heal in the arena, Homing Crystal Soulmass can make it very easy to punish them for it as long as you can keep up with them well enough.
If someone is using slow weapons, it's a good time to see how hard your Crystal Soul Spear can hit, since you'll be getting lots of openings. If they're using a dagger with Quickstep, then aluminum powder and iron oxide powder mixed at a 27:80 ratio by mass will get you some thermite to melt your computer/console with, since it's basically a guaranteed loss unless the other person falls into a coma during the duel. Your Flashsword and Great Farron Dart will not do much damage, are easier to avoid than the dagger, and don't offer any protection.
Depending on your Vigor, it can sometimes be worth tanking a hit from an enemy spell caster, since it's very rare for people to be a pure sorcerer, pyromancer, or shock therapist. While their 500 damage Chaos Bed Vestiges will hurt, your 900 damage Crystal Soul Spear and the 5 Homing Crystal Soulmasses that hit them while they're staggered will hurt them even more. You use damage to make people unnecessarily afraid of you, don't let them do the same to you.
Keeping a Pyromancy Flame equipped in one of your left hand slots can also be useful. The Combustion weapon art will not do a whole lot of damage, but it will land hits on people, and hit for ~120 damage. It's not amazing, but a free hit is always nice, and a build can even be based around getting low damage hits consistently.
I generally don't bother with using Steady Chant except for right at the start of a duel. The damage bonus is not usually a lot, and it wears out too fast. For this reason, the Court Sorcerer's Staff was my staff of choice, since it offers the best damage at 60 Intelligence when casting regular sorceries without Steady Chant. If you need more speed, the Witchtree Staff may be worth looking in to, but you'll take a sizable hit to damage.

All in all, it's a pretty fun way to play, and it can even win you quite a number of duels. Even ganks can be beaten with enough use of Soul Greatsword and some good Crystal Soul Spears. If you've never given it a real chance (playing a sorcerer through early game to mid-game doesn't count, on the basis that it's irredeemably bad, whereas in late game and NG+ it's actually good), then I highly recommend it. It's a great way of mixing things up, and will also give you insights into beating other casters in future duels, since you'll have a better idea of what they're likely to do.

Side effects of using sorceries may include writing two 1500 word essays on sorceries. Don't consult your doctor about sorceries, because they probably don't play Dark Souls 3.

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Dark Souls 2 had more spells, but most dark souls 3 spells are ones I actually find useful. Half of Dark Souls 2's spell variety are useless. And people on the Dark Souls 2 wiki still complain.

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When your at the dragonslayer and you summon sorcerer then the best spell the have is heavy soul arrow

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Someone care to explain why they nerfed magics in accordance of warriors wishes ? It seems...a really unbalanced way to proceed...

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I honestly don´t understand all those people whinning that sorceries suck in PvP. I am really into PvP a lot and I win like 95 % invasions (1v1) being a pure sorcerer. And I am not even far in the game, surely very experienced players can whack the hell out of me but usually Homing soul mass with Soul spear is such a deadly combination. It almost always kills oponents instantly if I am able to hit them with this combination simultaneously. Sure it may seem like a boring gameplay doing the same thing, but you have to be creative as a sorcerer - free aiming is required as well as various tricks. And as soon as I get my hands on Friede´s great scythe, I am going to enjoy PvP even more :D Lastly, with 60 INT and all sorc boosting items, sorceries do HUGE amount of damage - maybe it was always like this, maybe not and they fixed it with patches, I dunno. In conclusion - do not give up on sorceries in PvP only because most players say so (and MOST of them do - so far I have NEVER encountered other sorcerer in PvP or maybe just once).

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The great soul dregs is the best magic, the Damage is insane

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As a quick note; you can get the golden scroll by going to the keep perimiter bonfire and simply drop down the hole back towards the lizard and drop to the right.

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The amount of salt from Sorcerer's in this comment section is hilarious. I especially like the wall of text that was nothing but *****ing.

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Magic Clutch Ring's location is wrong it sends you to https://darksouls3.wiki.fextralife.com/Irythyl+of+the+Boreal+Valley instead of https://darksouls3.wiki.fextralife.com/Irithyll+of+the+Boreal+Valley
Irythyl (false) vs Irithyll (correct)

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I'm amazed by people who can effectively play as a sorcerer invader as I tried it once and it was difficult

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Thanks for your summary. Rings pretty true for me too. I still like playing as a sorcerer.

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Shouldn't the Sage's Ring be here?

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Well, after playing on two very different full spell caster only characters, using each type of magic, I've come to offer my observations. The first character ended up at level 247 with 99 attunement, 50 intelligence, and 45 faith, with every single spell. I started off with miracles, but with only lightning spear and force, it wasn't very good. I switched to pyromancies, and suddenly became way stronger. After that, I played through the game mainly using Chaos Bed Vestiges, until I got decently high levelled, where I started using more miracles. Sunlight Spear is ended up being good for general use, and amazing on certain enemies (the Nameless King's wyvern comes to mind). I had tried to use sorceries, but every time I used them, they always did less damage than either a miracle or a pyromancy.

By the time I had every spell though, I also found out that the only way to make sorceries actually useful was to use all five sorcery damage increasing items, and either RTSR or Lloyd's Sword Ring. At this point, with no care for FP efficiency, Crystal Soul Spear wrecks***** in PvE, and Great Soul Dregs is amazing for some enemies (pontiff knights, for example). With a crystal chime, I was hitting over 1000 damage on pretty much every enemy. Sunlight Spear and Chaos Bed Vestiges were still useful to keep around, but sorcery was suddenly the best, and made up most of my PvP spells.

In PvP, having every spell and 10 spell slots was actually pretty good, despite 10 vigor. If I wanted to play using only miracles, they held their own quite well, with Lightning Stake roll catching, and Lightning Storm staggering people for a Sunlight Spear hit. Lightning Arrow was pretty useful at times as well, although not as useful as some people seem to think. Pyromancies also could hold their own, with Black Flame being probably the best pyromancy, and Seething Chaos doing work. However, sorceries were trash for PvP, because they're so telegraphed that even with 50 dexterity for maximum cast speed, they rarely hit anyone. Snap Freeze could allow me to get a hit at times, when people didn't expect a Crystal Soul Spear to come flying out of the mist, but generally the only time a sorcery could land a hit was when fighting ganks and using Soul Greatsword. Easily less than 10% of my casts actually hit people, and that meant I had to burn through FP quick.

So, what made sorceries good enough that I mainly used them for PvP? Was it some damage boost I missed that made the <10% hit rate worth it? A sorcery that could catch people off guard? Nope, it was a miracle. Specifically, Lightning Storm. That's right, the best way to make sorceries viable was to use a spell that requires 45 faith. The number of times I used Lightning Storm, stagged my opponent, and then comboed them with a Crystal Soul Spear to take them from full health to barely alive was just silly. Even then, I could only make this work by using my numerous spell slots to mix in spells that would force my opponent to keep guessing, like Soul Greatsword or Dark Edge.

Of course, there were times when using nothing but sorceries (and Tears of Denial) did work. When cosplaying a Crystal Sage, I managed to win around one third of my duels by being able to spam so many projectiles at my opponent (Farron Hail + Crystal Hail + Homing Crystal Soulmass + Crystal Soul Spear for maximum magic spam). However, it was an uphill battle, and relied on landing a Crystal Soul Spear since most of my attacks did pathetic damage, despite my stats and rings.

As for the other character, this time it was a low level sorcerer, specifically level 25. I managed to claw my way through the game using sorceries, with goal of getting Soul Spear, and the stats to use it, while only being level 25 so that I could help people at low levels beat bosses. I had to give up a ring slot and get the Scholar Ring to do it with a good number of spell slots, but it was workable. I also was going to get every damage increasing item for spells along the way.

It was a bit rough at the start, but with a bit of help from summons, I managed to get through. The sorceries were doing okay damage, but it was not too bad. Clearly I just not stacked enough damage on the previous character when I tried the spells. As I went on, beating bosses while rather underleveled and at a max upgrade of +2, it seemed a bit easy, since the rings I had gotten buffed my damage nicely. Then I got to the Dancer. It took over three hours to finally beat her, and I finally did it when I summoned someone else doing the same thing as I was. Then I set out for Pontiff Sulyvahn and Aldrich (I wasn't going to go straight from one hard bossfight to another, was my thinking at the time). Sulyvahn wasn't too bad, with Gotthard there as a meat shield. I was actually a bit impressed with the damage I was doing at this point.

And then came Aldrich. With no summons, low damage from sorceries due to his resistance, no stats for melee weapons, I was stuck. It was rare to get him into his second phase, simply because it took so long to deal enough damage that I usually made my one mistake and died. After a few hours of not even coming close to beating him, I decided to switch to pyromancies. I had already beaten the Old Demon King, so I transposed Chaos Bed Vestiges, got my pyromancy flame and rings, and tried Aldrich again. Within half an hour, he was dead. Sweet, I thought, now I can go to the Grand Archives. All I have to do is beat the Dragonslayer Armor. And so, with my pyromancies, that's exactly what I did, without much effort. So now, with the final items I needed within reach, I went to work slaughtering things with my pyromancies. Poison Mist allowed me to easily (albeit, slowly) kill the Crystal Sage, and Chaos Bed Vestiges was able to one shot the scholars there. I was then able to get the stuff I had beaten the majority of the game to get. Putting on my Crown of Dusk, Scholar's Candlestick, Magic Clutch Ring, Scholar Ring, Bellowing and Young Dragoncrest Rings, I then returned to Vordt to help people fight him. I was somewhat excited to see how much damage I could rack up with all these damage bonuses put on Soul Spear. So, while waiting to be summoned, I tested the damage difference between Soul Spear and Great Heavy Soul Arrow to see what it would be like.

AND IT WAS TRASH.
I wasn't even getting 5% more damage from my Soul Spear compared to my Great Heavy Soul Arrow, despite it costing over twice the FP. Rather annoyed at how it was practically useless, I decided to just use the soul arrow instead when I got summoned. I still remembered how much damage I had done when I fought Vordt the first time, so I was ready to see how much I had gained by getting all these extra items.

Damage with Heavy Soul Arrow, Steady Chant, and only Young Dragon Crest Ring: 151
Damage with Great Heavy Soul Arrow, Stead Chant, Crown of Dusk, Scholar's Candlestick, Scholar Ring, Magic Clutch Ring, Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring, Young Dragoncrest Ring, and Heretic's Staff: 218

At this point I gave up on fighting bosses. It was clear to me that sorceries were worthless for that. So, I decided to try some PvP. I figured it would be hard to land a hit, but I wouldn't have to land many. Instead, it turned out that sorceries were even less useful in PvP than they were for fighting Vordt. I didn't deal that much damage to people, and it was nearly impossible to land a hit. With few spell slots I couldn't mix up my casts very much, my low attunement meant I couldn't keep casting for low, and slow cast speeds meant people could easily roll out of the way.

So, what did I learn from this 10 hour venture into low level sorcery? Simple: it's irredeemably bad at low levels. Anything it does okay, pyromancy does better. You can not only out damage sorcery with pyromancy, you can land more hits, and don't even need as many levels. The most useful sorcery for low levels, Hidden Body, only needs 15 intelligence, which you'll most likely have if you're using pyromancies.

So, in summary, sorceries are only good at end game, with massive stat investments required, whereas pyromancies are the best for early to late game, and miracles kind of do their own thing, and can be useful, but generally aren't as good as pyromancies.

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the number of sorceries and miracles and hexes are pitiful compared to ds2

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I want to build an INT/DEX build using Friede's Great Scythe and Dark Sorceries. Do dark Sorceries scale with Faith as well, and of they do, how should I handle my Faith Stat?

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best sorcery challenge : what are your favorite sorceries ? for me, 3 : great deep soul _ 2 : crystal magic weapon_1 : crystal soul spear.

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Sorceries are so unbalanced. Compared to miracles and pyromances they blow them out of the park in damage. Why is there so much gear to boost the damage they can do? It just hurts my mind trying to figure out why there so OP. Only thing that's easy about them is their some what easy to dodge. Just ***** sorceries and everyone who uses them.

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Est ce que la magie noire est bien ou plutôt la magie ou Pyro

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I'm a sorcerer and I hit horace and anri but cant kill them and cant get past them what should I do?

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i have all the sorceries in dark souls 3 why don't i have the achievement

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So I was curious about being a sorcerer and reallocated my stats and discovered that it's not fun. It's difficult to be a good sorcerer, you can only hit people if they don't see you or if they're fighting someone else or just suck at dodging, you need to play smart, with a limited amount of attacks. It was a wasted reallocation for me.

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