Amber the Holy Knight

A Faith build with a balance of support and offensive incantations and access to a variety of Faith-scaling weapons. PvE-focused and balanced around the meta level for builds.

This is a high level build loosely based on my previous Faith build, Sophia the Seer. This version focuses more on weapons while retaining access to powerful incantations. The idea behind this build was to make a tanky and versatile build that balances offense and defense. Good for PvE and co-op, this build acts a gold counter part to my Garnet the Dragon Knight (red build and invader) and Sapphire the Carian Knight (blue build and hunter) builds.

Starting Class

I chose the Vagabond Origin for this build as it’s the most optimal for Faith builds with high Strength and Dexterity investment. The Prophet and Confessor also work but will be one and two levels behind, respectively. You can use the Prophet or even the Hero if you want the extra Arcane for Dragon Communion incants; otherwise, this build can otherwise use any pure Faith incantation and a wide variety of weapons and armor. This makes the build extremely versatile and powerful.

Armor

I chose the Leyndell Knight armor to fit the holy paladin theme of the build. I used the Tree Sentinel gauntlets to reach the 51 Poise threshold as well, all while keeping our equip load at medium. You can use any fashion set you want as long as you stay within medium equip load or lower, but I prefer fashion sets that fit the vibe of a paladin or priestess. The Circlet of Light also keeps us in medium load, but I chose it for its appearance more than its function.

Playstyle

This is a tanky build with a balance of melee and ranged combat. Use your incantations at range to whittle down enemies before engaging them up close. In melee combat, use your shield to block attacks and guard counter. The Icon Shield replenishes your health over time, albeit slowly. This healing stacks with other healing buffs, such as Erdtree Heal and the Blessed Dew Talisman, so any damage that goes through your shield will be steadily replenished. The Icon Shield also has no skill, so you have ready access to your main-hand weapon’s skill.

I chose the Coded Sword as the main melee weapon for this build. It’s light and scales well with Faith, so it’s ideal for a paladin. Use its Unblockable Blade skill to penetrate guards and clear crowds.

General Tips

You can use most Pure-Faith incantations along with most Dragon Communion incantations, giving access to all elemental damage types.
For your defensive buffs, swap in the following as needed to get the corresponding elemental buff:
- Black Flame’s Protection: Physical
- Flame Protect Me: Fire
- Barrier of Gold: Magic
- Golden Lightning Fortification: Lightning
- Lord’s Divine Fortification: Holy
- Protection of the Erdtree: Multi-element
Use the Outer God Heirloom to access the lesser Dragon Communion Incantations. Hold the Dragon Communion Seal in one of your hands to apply the buff to Dragon incants. You’ll need to cast these incants with one of your pure-Faith seals to get the most damage out of them with this stat spread.
Your healing incants can heal allies, too. Make use of this in co-op or when using spirit summons.

Melee Weapons

Coded Sword: A pure-Faith weapon that deals holy damage and weighs very little. This is your primary melee weapon.
Cipher Pata: A pure-Faith fist weapon with 0 weight. An excellent fast alternative to the Coded Sword, but suffers from low range.
Fire Knight’s Greatsword: An amazing Colossal Sword that works fantastically with Flame Art infusion on a Faith build. Equip the Flame Spear or Flame Skewer skills for devastating results. You may need to unequip your shield to use this, but this acts an excellent two-handed weapon and fire damage alternative to your holy weapons.
Erdsteel Dagger and Fire Knight’s Shortsword: Your go-to daggers. I like to put Sacred affinity on the Erdsteel Dagger and Flame Art on the Fire Knight’s Shortsword for a Holy and Fire damage fast weapon, respectively. Putting Flame Spear on the Fire Knight’s Shortsword gives you a nifty fire-damage sniper weapon.

Ranged Weapons

Erdtree Bow: Your primary ranged weapon. This bow can make good use of Golden Arrows for good holy damage. These arrows can also prevent undead enemies from reviving.
Erdtree Greatbow: Your heavier ranged option. Use this with Golden Great Arrows, which can buff allies and damage enemies.

Useful Talismans

Blessed Dew Talisman: Used to regenerate HP over time. Stack this with other healing buffs like Blessing of the Erdtree and the Icon shield to boost your health regeneration as much as possible.
Blessed Blue Dew Talisman: Regenerates FP over time. Use this if you feel you need the extra FP instead of the extra HP regeneration.
Erdtree’s Favor + 2: Boosts Health, Stamina, and Equip Load.
Curved Sword Talisman: Enhances guard counters. Useful for Greatshield builds, since you’ll be blocking a lot.
Greatshield Talisman: Lowers stamina used when blocking. Good if you feel you need the extra defense when blocking.
Great-Jar’s Arsenal: Boosts equip load by 19%. This saves us a fair amount of points on Endurance that we can instead put into other attributes.
Flock’s Canvas Talisman: Enhances incantations.
Two Fingers Heirloom: Boosts Faith by 5. Useful for buffing our Faith seals early on, but we can remove it at RL 150 if we use the Faith-Knot Crystal Tear.
Outer God Heirloom: Boosts Arcane by 5. This is useful if you want to incorporate some Dragon Communion incantations into your build. With the Vagabond Origin, this gives us 12 Arcane, which is just enough to use the lesser dragon breaths, and 13 with the Circlet of Light equipped, which is enough for Dragonclaw.