That's the same setup that I used for my character ;) In fact, all the way through Tower of Latria, I only used DSS+5, it was the safest way, especially on 3-1 (Those damn squid-guardian enemies have a very potent Soul Ray in NG+)

My suggestion is that you don't start another "Dark" shield, no regular shield, even when upgraded to "Dark"+5 will have the same similar Guard Reduction nor Magical Reduction stats as DSS.

Nope....need to finish the "Dark" shield for the trophy though. It's gonna be a pain getting all the "upgrade" trophies....Only one I have so far is the MercuryStone.

I had almost all of them, except for the Cloudstone and Bladestone ones T.T

I even had a Pure Bladestone >_

Did you do a ton of farming or just get them through normal gameplay? I honestly haven't even checked on most of them, figured I'd do it last. But I know I'm short on a couple (no pure Sharp or Hardstone for sure).

I'm going to try and get all the "upgradeable" valuable weapons tonight (Needle of Eternal Agony, Morion Blade, etc..) and see where I stand after that. I figure I KNOW I can get all the Gold Trophies after this playthrough and part of the next one, but not so sure about all the upgrades....

Well, the Pure Bladestone is considered the hardest single piece of loot to get in the game xD I had pure luck, because I was messing around with Thirst and Soulsucker on a PB WT 4-2, farming on souls, and the BP Black Skeleton dropped it at the third time :P

i hate you -_- .. as i said before, the stone cost me 7 hours. xD

(but i am a fool.. i forgot to use soulsucker, i fought this ass of a Phantom everytime.. ^^')

@epic:

the bad parts are to get the pure bladestone and the chunks of cloudstone, so dont forget to pick up the chunks of cloudstones near the boss in 4-3, it'll make your life easier.

i spent about 40 Hours in grinding materials in total..^^

@Crystalchild

Don't hate me, since I will have to get it once again when I start my new game and I might not be so lucky next time XD

Soulsucker is one great way to farm easily for it, and to gain an massive amount of souls, if you couple it with Soul Thirst, Silver Bracelet and Ring of Avarice xD
Doing PB WT 4-2 BP Black Skeleton runs, from the Old Hero AS, I always managed to get over 45K in 1.2 minutes

Chunk of Cloudstone was actually the single hardest piece of material to drop for me >__>

I was trying for both the pure bladestone AND chunks of Cloudstone last night...I have the Dark Purple Flame Shield at +4 so I just need more chunks of Cloudstone to finish that one off...but I think I only have 1 (that i got last night) and I need 8 more? Ugh.

No luck on the bladestone...I only killed that one dual katana skeleton 3 times on 4-2, though...all he gave me were shards. Do you get better drops when you use soulsucker/ring of avarice, etc? I thought that was just for more souls? And how would you even use soulsucker on that guy, he sees you from a mile away?

I did finish off 3 upgrade paths last night, though (hard, sharp, and whatever causes fire damage....so thats good, i guess). Also got all the upgradable weapons via Demons Souls. Trudging along toward that trophy....

Oh wait...you said the black phantom skeleton...nevermind...I assume he only shows up in PBWT, which I haven't done on 4-2 yet....

yep, the BP one, which appears in near PBWT - pure PBWT.

the best way to do, is to enter Old Heroes archstone, and head bac towards 4-1.

@Soulsucker, avarice and co:

no, they dont increase your dropluck.