Dark Souls 3: The Best Starting Classes! Class Rankings: What Should You Start With for Each Build?

Sitting at the Dark Souls 3 character creation screen wondering what class would be best to start with? Here we will cover what classes you should choose from, what classes you should never choose, and explain the reasoning for these choices.

Unsure what kind of build you want to create?

Start with the Knight if you are completely unsure of what you want to go with. The Knight allows you a wide variety of options, from pure melee to melee-caster hybrid, doesn’t waste points in the Luck Stat, and has a great starting shield. The shield blocks 100% of physical damage which can be a huge help when first starting out.

An alternative starting class if you truly don’t know what build you want to make is the Deprived class. However, you may have a much tougher time for the first couple of hours of the game. The Deprived class starts out with minimal equipment and starts at level 1 (most classes start around level 7). All of the Deprived’s stats start at 10, which can be either good or bad. You can make the character into any build, but in many cases 1 or 2 of those stats will be completely unused.

Lastly, if you can’t decide what kind of playstyle you want to use, perhaps try deciding one or two things you don’t want to use. Perhaps you are sure you don’t want to use Miracles. You can safely pick one of the classes with low Faith.

Overall Class Rankings

1. Knight
2. Warrior (for melee builds focused a little more on Strength)
3. Pyromancer (for caster builds)
4. Assassin (for builds using Dexterity weapons with the option of being a hybrid caster)
5. Deprived (greatest amount of possibilities)

How did we arrive at these rankings? The Knight is a perfect all around starter class, with very few “wasted” points, plenty of build options as you level up, and great starting equipment with a 100% physical damage absorbing shield, a solid weapon and good armor. The Warrior and Pyromancer are picked largely because they waste as few stats as possible on Luck, which is largely useless. The Assassin is a solid choice if you plan to use the Dexterity stat at all.

What are the most efficient starting classes?

Note that all classes have a total of 99 Stat Points used when they reach level 10. This is slightly confusing because different classes start at different levels, but by level 10 they are all “equal.” For those new to Dark Souls, the first few levels take small amounts souls (experience) to level up, so starting level should not be a factor for most people. However you will need to fight through the first few weak enemies, then one moderately hard boss before you can level up for the first time.

The Warrior and Pyromancer are considered the most efficient starting classes, almost solely because they are the classes that waste as few points as possible on the Luck stat. The Luck attribute is by far the worst stat unless you have a very specific, heavily planned out build in mind. The Knight is a close 3rd place on efficiency.

Beyond the Luck stat, it is ideal to make a couple decisions before you start. At least determine one or two things you DON’T want your character to do, and make sure your starting class has a low stat score in that area. This way you will won’t have any wasted stats as you build up your character.

• Do you want to use any spells (of any kind)?
  • If yes, you want some Attunement (ATT) stat points
  • Then choose either Intelligence (Sorcery Spells) OR Faith (Miracles).
  • Pyromancy uses both Intelligence AND Faith.
  • If you don’t want to use any spells, Attunement, Intelligence, and Faith should be as low as possible. (Warrior Class)
• If you want to use heavy weapons, shields and armor, you want Strength points
• If you want to use light, fast, or ranged weapons, you want Dexterity points

What is the best class if you don’t want to use any spells?

This is an easy one, choose the Warrior class because he has no wasted stats in Attunement, Intelligence, or Faith. It also has a fairly low Luck stat, which is pretty much useless. Note that Dark Souls 3 has added Weapon Arts, which are special moves based on what weapons you are carrying. Weapon arts (like spells) use Focus Points (FP) which is based off of the Attunement stat. This is nice because your “mana” (focus) bar won’t go to waste as a melee-only character. Focus Points can also be refilled using a special Estus Flask so you don’t really need to worry about leveling up Attunement in order to get more Focus Points.