Started NG+2 as a shield & spear build for something different.
Finally found a build that makes Crucible Knights a breeze.
Overall this build is pretty boring, melee powerstance & melee casting is way more active and fun, but it's also a pretty safe build for survivability. Got past Liurna in about an hour. I kind of want to grab the Dectus medallions for the lift but I feel like the climb is faster than running to Fort Faroth and doing the Cave. Idk.
Also after I finished this session I realized this build is really stupid stat-wise since I'm using an Arcane weapon (Mohg's spear). I have my stats split between 80 ARC for primary weapon, 48 STR for the fingerprint shield, 18 DEX so I can switch off to Rivers of Blood if I want without respec, 27 Faith for Golden Vow, Flame Give me Strength and Lord's Discipline for the final boss, just enough MIND with the Marika Soreseal to summon Tiche at 132FP and 60VIT and just enough END to fit with heavy load.
Stats are too spread, even at lvl.200. Really inefficient.
If instead of using the Blood Spear, I used a STR weapon to go with the Fingerprint Shield since all I'm doing is poking anyhow, I could save that 80 ARC (default ARC is like 9, so that's 71 stat points) and use it to fill out MIND so I don't need the Soreseal and basically max out STR/Faith for a Paladin type of build. Will investigate this next time. Otoh if I switch to STR/Faith 80/80 I won't be able to fall back on Rivers of Blood without a respec. Which is probably fine. Still have 5 Larval Tears from the first run and can find more this 3rd run if I need to.