Dark Souls

"weak to thunder"

You mean lightning, right?

yes

no only the noise lightning makes

Electricity.

Shocks.

Zappenings.

PIKA!

...Shoryuken!
...Shoryuken!
Shoooryuken!

Just now discovered how to make unique weapons, by the way. Why are so many of them underwhelming? Am I just overleveled for them, is regular lightning stuff just generally better, or am I forgetting to take reinforcement into account?
The Dragon Bone Fist has lower damage than the +10 caestus I made it from. :/ And looks like a burnt marshmallow, but I'm trying to look past that.

BTW, still haven't killed Crystal Dragon Frankenstein yet; can't find the shiny place.

edited 16th Feb '16 9:07:01 AM by Knowlessman

Have you maxed out the boss soul weapons?

Also, stat scaling is a thing that can affect them.

Then there are weapons that gain a lot of damage from multiple stats, which can make the sum of two bonuses bigger than that of a single bonus. Or something. Methinks?

And sometimes some weapons come with a move that is very powerful or just looks cool.

I dunno if in practice you'll ever be able to hit anything with Dragon Bone Fists heavy attack, but if do, it's worth it to see them fly.

I've hit a couple of the pink lightning gremlins with it, but wouldn't have if I hadn't been locked on. Can't really see myself using it, anyway.

The Dragon Fist has A for Strength, while the caestus had C for Str and Dex. Does stat scaling take the requirements into account? :/ It could be because I meet the requirement for the Fist exactly (20 Str), but exceeded the one for the caestus by a lot. I don't know if that's how it works, though.

Hmm, the wiki I'm looking at doesn't tell how exactly stats add weapon damage.

Just says stuff like "120% STR scaling" for Dragon Bone Fist

And Caestus has "51% STR and 51% DEX scaling" but nowhere it explains how each point of a stat increases the damage and by how much. I doubt the increases are exactly 1-to-1 when it comes to stats-to-damage.

But as far as base requirements reducing stat bonuses, don't think that's a thing.

DBF has zero DEX scaling though, so if you got some crazy DEX and STR, Caestus probably is stronger.

edited 16th Feb '16 9:47:55 AM by Geist-Fox

:/ I do have 21 in both, but I dunno if that's crazy or anything...

A lot of the boss soul weapons ARE underwhelming or at least not substantially better than the regular stuff you find around the world. some of them like queelag's furysword are actually pretty good though.

I haven't played the game in a long while so I dunno if 21 on two stats is wild or not.

Well, I think 40 is usually considered one of the "soft caps" as the gains past 40 tend to be smaller or something.

Uh, even the Furysword, which I also made, looks like shit next to my +2 lightning broadsword. :/ Then again, it's supposedly boosted by Humanity (which the wiki sadly doesn't explain at all), which I never have much of. As-is, though, it deals like 170 fire and 60(?) physical, while the broadsword deals 170 lightning and physical.

edited 16th Feb '16 12:46:52 PM by Knowlessman

"Chaos Fire" weapons get more fire damage as you have more Humanity, but it caps at 10.

And Quelaag's Fury Sword is one.

It also is a curved sword, primarily a DEX weapon, but it's physical damage is so-so.

And most lightning and fire weapons that are modified from their base form will have all scaling removed, so having a Fire Zweihander with 50 STR and DEX is just as good as having a Fire Zweihander with 24 STR and 10 DEX.

I'm sure I read something somewhere about weapons that deal two types of damage being less effective overall, since the two types of damage are affected by two different defense values of the enemy/target.

Really though, it's not about which weapon has the better numbers. It's about finding one that suits how you play and that you can use effectively.

But yeah, a +10 vanilla weapon is probably going to be better than an unupgraded unique weapon.

...Question: When you look at a weapon's stats, is the left Physical number static and the + next to it what your stats add to it?

Yes, every weapon has a base damage value, and the + value is what is added by your stats. Base damage only changes when you upgrade the weapon, but the extra damage will change as you increase the appropriate stat.

edited 16th Feb '16 12:59:14 PM by artfulscruff

Is it fully upgraded? Besides the aforementioned chaos scaling (which caps out at 10 humanity), it also scales with dexterity, and yours is only at 21 atm. In contrast, lightning and regular fire weapons have good base damage but will never scale with your stats.

It's not just about the damage per hit though, it has a quick swing speed and not that heavy so it actually has respectable DPS.

edited 16th Feb '16 1:11:38 PM by wehrmacht

...So, I'm level 50, with 21 Str and Dex (...Should I respec? :/ ended up putting minimal points in Faith and Int for Heal and Soul Spear, respectively), and the Furysword gets +25 from them. Not sure how long it'd take this to reach the broadsword, but I think it'd be awhile.
...Wait, does Initialize even do what it sounds like it does, or do I just need enough souls where I could level up?

Ninja'd. :/ Now I'm worried I'm underleveled again.

edited 16th Feb '16 1:12:38 PM by Knowlessman

Unless they changed something, I don't think you can respec.

As for being underleveled, I'm not sure there is such a thing in this game, strictly speaking :P You can beat anything at any level if you're skilled enough.

edited 16th Feb '16 1:15:40 PM by artfulscruff

Nah, you don't need to worry about respecing, and even if you did it's not actually possible to "respec" any of your stats. that's a feature that only got added in dark souls 2. I wouldn't worry about the strength scaling of the furysword, it's only E so it's kinda pitiful. Just raising your dex would be fine if you actually want to use it.

Also, while leveling up obviously does give you benefits, upgrading your weapons and armor gives you a lot more immediate power. Being "underleveled" isn't really that big of a deal provided you have good equipment.

edited 16th Feb '16 1:17:47 PM by wehrmacht

I feel it's worth saying that it's not generally wise to try and increase a stat late on in the game if you haven't been working on it since the start. For example, if you've spent half the game using strength weapons and leveled up accordingly, then find a dex weapon you like, you're probably going to find it hard to level dex instead from that point, because of the increasing cost of leveling up.

I learned the hard way on my first playthrough too, but in my experience I think you're better off having a build in mind from the start and sticking to it.

And yeah, what he said. It's pretty much always better to upgrade gear rather than stats.

edited 16th Feb '16 1:22:01 PM by artfulscruff

Yeah, one "flaw" with this game is that you kind of want to have your preferred stats planned out on character creation, but I suppose that goes for all RPG's with where you manually assign points.

...Eh, heh.

I'm kinda still using my first character. :| I've made others, but I'm farthest with him. Kinda like in Skyrim, really; first try does a little of everything before settling on the most straightforward path.

...Well.

Just killed Seath on the first go. Did have decent curse resist, I guess, and the lightning sword, and thorough intel on his moveset and a good spot to whale on him from, but still really wasn't expecting that.
Hell, I just planned to run in and die so as to bring the fog wall up and not have to deal with the clams in future tries.

Where would you suggest trying next? By the way, I also beat Sif recently, so New Londo is on the table.

Tomb Of Giants perhaps? It's after the Catacombs.

Also Lost Izalith, the lava filled place after Blight Town.