Originally posted by Alty:

There's an "explanation" button on the status screen that will tell you what each stat and value is.

I somehow never noticed this...

Originally posted by Simple Tora:

Originally posted by Alty:

There's an "explanation" button on the status screen that will tell you what each stat and value is.

I somehow never noticed this...

It's pretty hard to see, to be fair.
Also quick rundown so you have an easier time:

Vigor goes to the red bar. Gains cost-effectiveness until 40, then ramps down until 60, after which it's marginal.

Mind goes to the blue bar. Fine to keep pumping til 60 as well.

Endurance goes to the green bar and max equip load. Good til 50... though you probably don't ever need that much if you just learn how to quickly use the equip menu mid-combat.

And then the other stats are for equip requirements and then scaling (the letters on weapons indicate how effective the stat to damage bonus modifier is). Cost effective until 60 for hitting stuff, until 80 for spells.

Get your vigor up so that you can take a few hits, and don't bother exceeding minimum equip requirements until you're at like +12 on your favorite weapons.

Originally posted by Simple Tora:

Back trying out some random stuff I found and seems good in my head but I barely understand what i'm doing in this game with builds since so much stuff just isn't explained in game. (Like wth is occult???)

I recently got an Antspur rapier that apparently has scarlet rot buildup. I put poison affinity on it cause double status seems cool but also I have an ash of war that lets me put bleed on it as well so 3 status effects. I was thinking of dual wielding with a frost weapon in the other hand for 4 status effects cause that sounds nutty

0 clue what to respec into though. I'm not really sure how i'm supposed to find out what stuff scales off of properly without cheating and looking it all up

In summary, Occult is one of the branching upgrade paths for your weapons. Take note when making a weapon go a certain upgrade path, the stat scaling of the weapon changes.

Some of this stuff isn't explained very well in game and how it works sometimes isn't very intuitive. For example...

Status effect buildup scales with Arcane, BUT only if the weapon itself has Arcane scaling, BUT this only applies to some status effects and not others. Bleed, poison, sleep, and madness will all scale with ARC (again, only if your weapon or seal does), while scarlet rot, frostbite, and death blight do not.

The Occult infusion adds high ARC scaling to a weapon, making it a good choice to put on a weapon with innate bleed or poison. In theory, it would also be good for weapons with innate sleep or madness, if any existed that could be infused. Further, madness (and death blight) only work against human-type enemies, so they're not very good for single player.

I wish you luck with your quadruple status dual wield build. I genuinely have no idea how it will perform.

If you want to try some other variations on the idea, try infusing your Antspur Rapier with Keen and buffing it with Bloodflame Blade. This lets you be a pure DEX build while still having two kinds of status buildup.

Alternatively, go for a Cold infusion on a strike weapon with bleed (e.g. Morning Star, Flail, Great Stars). Again, two kinds of status buildup, but now with big bonk energy that will smash through everything with reasonable effectiveness.