Dark Souls 2 can be a very intimidating game, there is a lot of room for customization and just because of that there can be a lot of room for error. Now granted that we can use the Soulvessel to undo any mistakes, it would be nice to save those for trying out new builds instead of correcting our early screw-ups. I will kick the guide off with a list of all the stats and some noteworthy stuff about them.
This attribute determines the amount of hit points or health your character has.
Having a lot of health is nice because Dark Souls 2 is a hard game and you will get a hit a lot. With enough Vigor you will be able to get hit a bit more before you die. Now I must note that most bosses hit so ridiculously hard that relying on your health pool over preventing damage is simply foolish. Therefor, I would advise not investing heavily in Vigor.
This attribute determines the amount of Stamina your character has
Stamina is allows you to roll, attack, block, cast spells, and shoot arrows, so leveling this to at least 20 would be a good idea. Leveling Stamina post 20 might only be reserved for the ones who wield heavier weapons and armor because a Greatsword will deplete your Stamina bar in just a few swings.
This attribute determines the amount of equipment load your character can carry
The amount of points you decide to invest in Vitality purely depends on what kind of equipment do you want to carry and what speed you wish to roll at. Make sure that you only invest points in Vitality up until 69% or 99% of your chosen equipment. You will not get any bonuses running around with 25% equipment load.
This attribute determines the amount of spell slots or attunement slots you can equip.
This attribute determines how much extra damage you can deal with Strength scaling weapons. Sometimes a certain number of Strength is required to even wield certain weapons or equip certain armor pieces.
If you wish to wield weapons that scale well on Strength (C+), than investing 40 points in Strength is a good idea; however, if you taken a liking to Dexterity based weapons you might wish to level Strength only to the required stats (For example a katana scales with S on Dexterity, but requires 14 Strength to wield).
This attribute determines the extra damage dealt with Dexterity, Bleed, and poison scaling weapons.
Similar to Strength only level this stat up if you chosen a weapon that scales on Dexterity or requires a minimum level of Dexterity to wield. There is no reason to level Dexterity up passed 40 as the return per level becomes awful; although bleed and poison scalings are still decent.
This attribute determines your agility which determines the speed of rolling, using items, raising shields, and it increases the parry window.
Adaptability really shines when you are struggling through poison based zones like The Gutter, The Harvest Mills, and The Earthen Spire. Not only because of the poison resistance, but the ability to heal or cure yourself quickly in certain boss fights is priceless. To be honest I have not noticed a big increase in my roll speed, so I usually do not level it up for PvP Characters. (BECAUSE USING AN ESTUS FLASK IN PVP IS DISHONORABLE!!!).
EDIT: Agility increase to your iframes while rolling.
This attribute will raise your magic bonus, which in turn will raise your fire bonuses and resistances
Intellect is mostly only leveled on mage characters; however, I do like investing 10, 16, or 18 intellect on certain Dexterity builds as well for the weapon enchants.
This attribute will raise your Miracle, Bleed and Lightning scalings.
Faith can be a nice addition to any build because it grants heals, hexes, weapon enchants, and some quality of life spells, just remember to not spread yourself out to thin.
These were all the attributes you can choose from when leveling up your character. Now to actually build you character you need to decide what kind of character you wish to play with. It is not a good idea to be a jack of all trades in Dark Souls 2 as this will make it harder for you to find online play. (You get matched with people around your own soullevel).
The first thing you need to ask yourself is what kind of weapons do I enjoy and level according to that. Let’s take a Katana for example. It requires 14 Strength to wield and scales on Dex, so what we do is level up our Strength to 14 and our Dexterity to 40. Now along the way we want to pick up some health and endurance of course.
This would be the skeleton of your build, now you can choose to add a weapon enchant from Intellect or Faith, or maybe you want some more adaptability because the roll-speed is important to you. Maybe you want to wear heavier armor or carry a great-shield, so you will have to invest in Vitality some more. At this point it is all about making the character comfortable for you. You can even level up Vigor to 50 and Vitality to 29 to make a fast rolling, katana wielding, hyper tank.
If you do not yet know what kind of weapons you like I would suggest making a quality build champion. Quality means making the most out of each weapon, so investing points in both Strength and Dexterity.