Dark Souls is often hailed as the title that started it all, as it was truly where the Souls franchise stole the limelight. Despite this, it truly is a flawed masterpiece, as there are a lot of features that needed to be fixed in later versions. When thinking about broken builds in the original game, there are a lot of different things that come to mind. The infamous GiantDad, Dex builds, and Wrath of the God spamming all come to mind, but there are arguably few that are as objectively broken as Pyromancy. From an outside perspective, it can be difficult to see why pyromancy was so broken in the original, though.
In the original Dark Souls, there were only three types of magic: Sorcery, Miracles, and Pyromancy. Although Dark Magic did exist in the original, these spells were still classified under one of the aforementioned three types of magic. For example, Dark Orb was a Dark Sorcery magic, while Black Flame is considered a Dark Pyromancy. As usual, any type of magic often had the upper hand over physical damage builds thanks to so many enemies being weak to elemental damage. However, pyromancy reigned supreme over the others for a number of reasons.
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One of the most immediately apparent differences between pyromancy and other spell types is that the former requires absolutely no stat investment. In order to be a truly effective sorcerer, players are going to want to devote at least 40 stat points into their Intelligence stat, and the same goes for Miracle users with the Faith stat. By contrast, pyromancers can spend those 40 points elsewhere and create higher quality Dark Souls builds. Pyromancy builds grant players more freedom by dramatically freeing up stat points and allowing them to either have way more health, damage with an actual weapon, or even heavier armor if the player invests in the Endurance stat.
Since pyromancies can be used without any stat investment, it's basically possible to run any other type of build and still use pyromancies to their fullest potential. More often than not, players opt to use a Dex build alongside their fiery spells. Dexterity also increases players' spell casting speed, providing them with quick spells that deal massive damage, while still allowing them to focus on other stats. This is the crux of why pyromancers are so much more powerful than other builds as a general rule, and it is something that was changed for future installments likely for that reason.
If pyromancies don't scale from any kind of stat, then fans are often left wondering what makes them so powerful. Instead of requiring players to hunt down a specific catalyst depending on where their intelligence is, there is only one Pyromancy Flame in the original Dark Souls. After obtaining it, players can upgrade this flame with Laurentius at Firelink Shrine up to 15 times, resulting in its magic adjustment stat reaching a total of 190. This is already enough for the Pyromancy Flame to deal incredible damage.
If that's not enough, and for pyromancers it usually isn't, the Flame can be ascended by taking it to Quelana in Blighttown. Doing this, players can upgrade it five more times, bringing its total magic adjustment rating up to a staggering 230. For reference, the strongest catalyst that players can use at Intelligence 40 is the Tin Crystallization Catalyst, but this also halves the number of sorceries players can cast between rests.
The next best thing to use at 40 Intelligence is the Manus Catalyst which also has the same effect on spell uses. Without losing any spell slots, players can get a catalyst that has a magic adjust of 211 at 40 Intelligence, and can't reach 230 magic adjust without using the Logan Catalyst at Intelligence 44.
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Another thing that lends to pyromancy often being considered broken is how it can be used in online play. Typically speaking, Dark Souls attempts to balance invasions by restricting online play between players that are of a similar level. While this seems like it would work, there are many players that are capable of getting great gear at a relatively low level, and using it to invade beginners that don't stand a chance with starting gear. This process is generally referred to as smurfing.
While it can be done with any build, smurfing is especially easy to do with pyromancy. All players need to do is get their hands on a Pyromancy Flame, grind souls until it is high level, and then get a few decent pyromancies and to dominate any new player. Since a level one character can use a fully ascended pyromancy flame just as well as a Soul Level 120 character, this is an easy way to grief new players. This was fixed to an extent in the remastered version of Dark Souls, as it added weapon matchmaking as well.
Every spell type in Dark Souls has some overpowered offerings, but pyromancy in particular is home to some of the most brutal in the game. Though early spells like Fireball and Flash Sweat aren't likely to turn the tides of battle, spells like Great Chaos Fireball, Firestorm, and Power Within offer Pyromancers a way to deal intense damage in a huge range of effect. Even in high level play, these spells can be difficult to manage, so it's easy to imagine how they would overwhelm a newcomer.
The same holds true in PvE play. It's simple for a powerful Pyromancer to burn down a boss' HP bar with some of these spells, trivializing all but the tankiest and most fire resistant of bosses. Of course, focusing on this can bite players in the butt when it comes to bosses that are immune to fire such as Quelaag, the Ceaseless Discharge, or the Centipede Demon. Even with these restrictions, Pyromancers most certainly have a few advantages over other builds in the original Dark Souls, but that's half of what makes them so fun to play as.
Dark Souls is available now on PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
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