I always finish every Souls game first with a Claymore, predominantly a melee build. It's my fav way to roleplay as my main D&D character, the mighty Calidor, always used it (named Sir Thrust, yeah I was 10

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I never uses buffs and rarely use any magic on that first playthrough, but I don't think that's going to fly here lol. Anyone playing a similar melee build? I'm going to hop in shortly and focus solely on exploring and finding those scaducree upgrades, then I'm coming back for Messmer, what a cunt!