Notes from Author
A build designed to mix magic, melee, and bleed to make combat wild and unpredictable (Note: All items shown can scale with luck.)
The listed spells (Farron Darts/Hail Spells) were generally buffed in regulation 1.06, which is what inspired me to make this build in the first place.
While I would normally suggest keeping a luck score of less then 40 (The softcap) due to hollow weapons providing a +5 luck bonus at +10, I knew that I was occasionally going to be going staff+scholars candle, and as such, would be casting a portion of my spells with no hollow weapons drawn.
Items I would recommend:
Carthus Rouge, With this, you will be able to bleed out some enemies in the first few hits of battle.
Kukkuri, While variations of the farron dart will be your primary chasing weapon, Kukkuri may very well be useful when it comes to enemies who have recently taken a physical beating from you.
Blue Bug Pellets, This build takes a lot of damage from sorcery, but these will help you survive such events.
Other weapons I would recommend:
Anri's straight Sword: Will have crazy base damage with this build, and scale well with all available buffs. Can break guards with its weapon art to make good use of the hornet ring. (Much like the barbed straight sword.) In general, all battle strategies relevant to the Anri's sword also apply to the Barbed Sword.
Carthus Shotel: Bypasses shields, has unparriable weapon art.
Chaos Blade: While it cannot become hollow, it does have S dex scaling, it is capable of parrying with its weapon art, and bleed damage is also still influenced by luck.
Barbed Whip: Generally, this is a great sidearm for bleed builds.
Other Spells I would recommend:
The Sword spells still exist, and this build can make decent use of GMW. Due to your already good melee capabilities, I would recommend using the greatsword one, as it can be used to set up devastating ambushes.
Dark magic scales terribly with this build, and is not advised.
Covenant