Dex is King?

 While I was tempted to take either my pure-Faith Pyromancer into the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, or to take my Faith/Int Necromancy spellcaster, I thought about how I've been coming across so many weapons in the DLC that scale primarily with Dexterity. While I don't have any pure-Dex characters, I do have a Dex/Int character who, in the base game, alternated a bit between Moonveil (and a Cold Ichigatana) and the Wing of Astel, both of which worked pretty well with those stats.

Bringing him into the DLC, I've been able to make good use of the Backhand Blades and the Milady (both given Cold infusions, which seems to scale best with the stat spread I have and obviously also does the Frostbite debuff) and... boy does it feel good.

I went through most of Castle Ensis in order to get both Milady and the Wing Stance Ash of War, using the Backhand Blades, upgraded to +24, and I was surprised at how quickly I was getting frostbite on the enemies there (especially as I struggled to get the debuff up with my Darkmoon Greatsword before I just took foes down). But as cool as that was, Milady coupled with the Wing Stance has been even more effective. For one, I can afford to equip a shield, so I have been able to make use of block counters (which do a nice double-hit - only a liability if the first hit staggers them and the second knocks them out of it) but primarily I've been using the stance with the L2 attack to leap up in the air and dive in at the foe, hitting really freaking hard.

I also got the Firespark Perfume Bottle, though this scales exclusively with Dexterity and can't be infused with cold or magic (admittedly the former would be a little counterintuitive) and so I decided it wouldn't be right for this character unless I re-spec him (and I seem to be finding more of the DLC larval tears, so that shouldn't be too hard to do) to focus on pure Dex - though at the levels I'm reaching, I wonder if going with a straight one-stat build is even worth it.

Anyway, while my leaping Strength/Faith double-greatsword build carried me very well through my first go in the DLC, and I haven't tried any of these set-ups against an actual boss (though I had an easier time than usual with the knight who drops the Solitary Armor,) I suspect that Dex will be very effective throughout this DLC.