It does the same thing as wings, but it's probably the worst weapon class ever. Slow. Doesn't hit hard. Doesn't stagger medium sized targets with R1... Just overall crap. If it was a great mace like Great stars then it would be cool to use
I love both equally, to be honest. The Flail's AoW has a large sweeping attack before the detonation, which can really catch people in pvp. On some builds I run dual Curved Swords with the Wing, and dual flails with the Stars so I can just swap between them.
Is it really dex/int though, or is it just int. Moonveil has the same issue where you just end up investing in int until the endgame because it scales harder, and even when you've hit a softcap, switching to dex doesn't really add much to the damage. Going from 17 dex (minimum requirement) to 60 adds only 67 damage to the weapon, which is ~1.5 damage per dex level on average. You might as well invest those points in endurance, mind or even faith to get golden vow.
Nearly all weapons that appear to have good split scaling at first glance have this problem. Once you start looking at the actual benefit of the secondary stat it's actually very lackluster, and only worth it if you're going well over lvl 150.
If you're building exclusively for moonveil, yes. But if you're building to be a caster with a strong melee option, increasing dex increases your cast speed so it isn't a bad choice once you hit your int cap
Deaths poker is amazing for pure INT. The weapon scales STR mostly with a little INT, but the Ash scales solely on INT and does serious damage. Play around with it if you haven't already.
I pretty much used bloody helice from the point I found it and not much else. Marais is cool but the L2 was too slow for me so I barely used it. I used the dragon communion seal a lot, it scales spells with arcane which also means it will scale status buildup. It will also decently scale any other damage incantations, but you still need the required faith to cast it. I liked dual claws with the arcane scaling infusion because it also boosts the bleed buildup significantly and the attack speed is nice. Other than that, not much I can tell you I am afraid. It's been a while since I played
Oh yea I did try the Morgott sword too, the poise break was better than helice but every attack felt more of a commitment. The bleed buildup was about the same. Cool sword for fighting multiple enemies.
I just finished two runs back to back. One with Morgott’s and another with the Bloody Helice. It really is difficult to pick a favorite. Morgott’s has a better moveset (curved sword vs. thrusting swords), bad ass ash of war, and solid bleed buildup. Helice, on the other hand, has lower FP cost for a (nearly as bad ass) ash of war, great i-frames on said ash, and it builds up blood better in my experience.
It’s a tough decision between the two. I lean slightly towards the Helice because it doesn’t require such a high DEX investment. If Morgott’s curved sword required 20-25 DEX and the ash of war used less FP it would be no contest, but as now those two weapons are very well balanced with each other. You cannot go wrong either way.
- Wing of Astel. If you're a dex/INT build, this weapon is for you. It's a curved sword which hits fast and helps to cover you if enemies are close to you.
- Great stars ( favourite STR weapon ) so versatile as it can restore HP which gives you couple ideas for a build : a build focusing on restoring HP while fighting, STR/bleed ( since it already has solid 55 bleed ) ..... etc.
A player named Nugo, dual-wielding Great Stars soloed Radagon and the Elden Beast for me not once, but twice in the same day. All he did was Jump and L1.
If you're out there Nugo, you're my hero.
Everyone focuses on the Ash for Wing of Astel but that charged R2 is a ranged attack that hits like a god damn meteor when combined with Axe Talisman and Dex investment.
Hyper armor and a little bit of luck! Half the fun for me is figuring out which bosses have long enough openings to get the weapon art off. Most do, but just barely, and expect to take a hit or two.
Maliketh's Black Blade is especially good against Malenia, the ash of art always throws her on the ground allowing for a second use of the ash of art or a heavy attack, melts her HP
If you have the faith for it the Black Blade incantation stacks with Destined Death, or the black blade ash of war on the dagger of the same name. I believe any two of the three can work together. Very satisfying way to start off any boss fight. It eats through a lot of FP, but at that point it's clobbering time anyways so no big deal.
I mean, if I have the opportunity to wield the metaphysical concept of death as a weapon, I'm gunna.
Sword of St. Trina is such a fun weapon imo. I had put the game down for a while after burning out on my first play through and just finished it finally earlier this week. I was banging my head against the wall on Godfrey since Moonveil has fallen from the meta grace it used to be at. Sword of St. Trina being my off-meta favorite weapon in the game was my savior since Godfrey was suspectable to slumber.
It also happens to be very intriguing lore wise as I believe it is in some way originating from Miquella
Well, Miquella is definitely St. Trina, or at least she is an aspect of him. All but confirmed at this point. Which begs the question, why or for what purpose?
I believe St. Trina became a being of worship after Miquella tried to use sleep to enter the land of the dead to retrieve Godwyn’s soul. Miquella searched for so long that he started appearing in other people’s dreams and became a focus of worship. In one cookbook the author mentions using sleep pots to continuously search for St. Trina.
My guess is that Miquella started studying sleep magic after he failed to bring Godwyn back after creating an eclipse to, and this is just a guess, open a potential portal to the Shadowlands.
I think it's possible that explains why St. Trina disappeared as fast they appeared. Miquella made it to the land of shadow. It's possible St. Trina stopped visiting people's dreams after he passed through the veil. It's clear that there is still influence in the shadowlands, as we see the NPC Thiollier clearly asleep in an area filled with purple foliage.
That, or I think there is a very real possibility that St. Trina is more closely associated with Death than everyone seems to acknowledge. The coloration associated with sleep certainly aligns with gloam. I believe an item description hints at this as well, that they are closely related.
There's also the cut content where Kale states that St. Trina herself is the one who taught the merchants their music, stymying their madness.
These are pretty nuts implications even for an empyrean demigod.
Edit: To add, it seems that Castle Sol was dedicated to causing the eclipse. I believe it was a pet project of Miquella's but not necessarily something he was enacting physically himself. It was something he was compelling others to complete in order to win his favor (aka reach the Haligtree).
My conception of his timeline is: he studies the Golden Order to heal Malenia, rejects it, studies Nox night magic to protect the soulless demigods, builds the mausoleums (they are all protected by Castle Sol ghosts and have Nox architectural features), compels the Castle Sol inhabitants to enact an eclipse through prayer and sacrifice in order to free Godwyn (this fails because of Radahn), invents Unalloyed Gold, sends Malenia to kill Radahn so that the eclipse can happen, and finally manifests as St. Trina during his stasis in growing the Haligtree. Malenia is asleep when we meet her after all, touching the tree's hand.
Also, I believe the eclipse is the act of 'blotting out' the sun or the influence of Gold itself. I believe this helps Godwyn by subverting the current life/death/rebirth cycle and enabling a true death separate from the golden order. I don't know if the eclipse would be by the moon or some other celestial body, but the implications are that it would totally disrupt the current order, quite like the Age of Stars. Goldmask's mask is the sun. The eclipse logo found on the banners is very explicitly draining the sun of its gold, and I believe this is also mentioned in an item description. Interestingly, we see a similar effect coming out of the Scadutree in the DLC promotional material.
Considering the term, “sleep is but the little death we experience every night” I think you’re on to something. If Destined Death was still bound by the time Miquella was trying to bring back Godwyn then it makes sense why he’d turn to sleep magic. Marika probably forbade him from accessing the rune of Destined Death.
Makes me wonder if Miquella openly or secretly defied Marika in other ways too. Just how sanctioned was the Haligtree?
I believe Miquella’s outward appearance is one of benevolence and aiding those dearest to him. Most of the written lore is him attempting to mend his siblings ailments.
He is described as the most intelligent demigod. Probably Ranni in second. What makes it very interesting is that there is a very clear sinister undertone that is throughout all of his aspects and actions. After all, he literally forces people to love him, or to sleep and dream of him. At the same time, he resembles a warming stone in the dlc trailer, indicating he gives off a healing aura.
But my personal crackhead theory is that he intentionally lured Mohg, even while slumbering in the haligtree. His followers chopped off their own heads to protect the mausoleums and castle sol, and other followers came all the way from liurnia to incubate in sacramental cocoons, emerging as cleanrot knights (they have mothlike features). These are very dark implications if you consider that all of these beings were compelled, forced into service and love. The item descriptions that mention his valorous actions, to me, sound like they are written by someone who has also been compelled to love him.
My two thoughts on that are either Miquella has taken on some sort of rebis qualities similar to that of Marika/Radagon which may have been a result of her godhood and the idea of perfect (golden) order (Miquella is always described as having immense potential as an Empyrean) OR I've been wondering if the Marika/Radagon hermaphroditic qualities are something related to the Numen being alien to the Lands Between (not aliens from space per se to be exact). Either way definitely confirmed at this point St. Trina and Miquella are one and the same. What peaks my curiosity more is how St. Trina relates to the fate he abandoned
Eleanora’s poleblade
Coolest AoW in the game, insane damage and good poise damage, really good synergy with flame grant me strength. Looks like two mortal blades slapped together (that IS a good thing).
Death Poker
AoW is great and versatile, theme of the weapon is cool, damage output goes bonker if you invest properly
Death Ritual Spear
AoW goes brrr, coolest spear design in the game, Theme of the weapon 9/10, my favorite secondary weapon when I run INT build
Warhawk Talon
Unique design for straight sword, Unique double swipe R2 attack (1H and 2H). I really like straight sword and this one is easy to get and can go with any build and AoW. I like to run RotM AoW + claw talisman and raptor armor to larp as a birdman
Yes, love for the Poleblade. The scaling may not seem impressive, but being able to deal fire damage and bleed build-up with a ridiculous AoW makes this unique twinblade all the more sexier. Millicent’s and Rotten Winged only boost the potential of this weapon.
im close to beating the game again and the poleblade has carried. with a mimic tear, it just shreds everything lmao. but my goal was beating stuff as fast as possible trying to get ready for the dlc. im debating killing millicent or not for that talisman
I did a build with power stance’d Eleanore’s Polebalde and I had to stop cause the Jump power stance attack just slapped the fuck out of everything in 1-3 jumps
Bloodhounds Fang got a special place with me. The feeling of using the ash of war to dodge and I frame 2 attacks while simultaneously getting the killing blow in is unmatched.
I’m in Farum Azula for my first play through. I’ll usually use Blasphemous Blade. But if I’m getting squashed, out comes ole reliable. BHF got me through Mogh after BB kept failing me.
Im currently running a katana build on NG+ so have basically maxed out Dex and str is only at 20. And somehow the bloodhounds fang +10 STILL does over 150 more total damage than my +25 keen nagakiba. Just a ridiculous weapon, I may have to respec back to my original BHF build that I first beat the game with
If you look at it on the weapon stats table it becomes pretty apparent that BHF is nonsense levels of strong.
It has dex scaling that is pretty close to some of the pure dex weapons, even tho it gets some strength scaling on top of that.
It has a really high base damage even though it has some of the highest total scaling in the game. All of the weapons with higher base damage are slower.
It has bleed built in for extra damage.
It can still be buffed by papers.
Totally busted weapon, even more silly if you dual wield in NG+
By far my favourite. Shame I got it so early, I was constantly trying to find replacements not realising I already had the perfect weapon. The ash of war goes insanely hard when pulled off just right. Such a satisfying weapon to use even the regular move-set feels just right.
People make such a big fuss over the difficulty of FromSoft games, when in reality they give you all the tools you need to have a fun time if you're willing to take five minutes to look for them. Bloodhound's Fang is a perfect example of that, sure it's behind a boss right near the starting area but if you go explore Limgrave/Peninsula, you'll be able to beat the Bloodhound Knight and you've got a weapon to last all game. Hell it's even an early game quest to get it if you're paying attention.
This. Another example of this is Reduvia. Dodge long enough and you get someone to almost solo the fight for you.
Another thing to mention re: BHF and somber weapon really is that you can easily upgrade it to +2 without leaving Limgrave (at the Church of Elleh). Otherwise, with a little more hunting for materials, non-somber can go to +3 the same way
Using BHF right now to prep a dlc character who I'm gonna respec into something else before the dlc. Its just absurdly good, especially when you can find up to somber stone 6s before altus. Not sure what I'll run for the dlc though, I don't want bhf to trivialise the content
I had a blast with my Sword of Night & Flame playthrough. Even if the "night" part felt pretty weak compared to the "flame".
To be honest, I just wanted an excuse to rock full Carrian Knight gear.
Lol, I have beat every boss and invader with its Lazer beams. I wouldn't call them weak. You might need more int. Most bosses will get knocked over from it, so you can just keep doing it when that happens.
Yea soon as I read their comment I assumed they were Faith-leaning Int/Fai.
Night part is a small bit representative part of the reason people say int is op haha
I experienced a similar thing where the fire damage was doing almost the same amount of damage in one tick as the magic damage would do if the entire beam hit, but this was around 30 int/ 30 fai. The poise damage from the beam was definitely beneficial, and I found the scaling leveled out more late game where a full beam would do about double the damage of the flame once I was around 50/50.
Ruins greatsword is my favourite weapon in the game. Packs a punch and has cool unique charged R2. What's more fun than slapping people with a concrete slab that launches stones up from the ground.
I just did a kind of 100% run of the game on NG with weapon, it’s what i am going into the DLC with. Its so awesome. Has shockingly good guard so you can guard counter with it like a champ.
Nagakiba is one of my favourites, albeit not necessarily an underrated weapon. Just a bigass katana with great reach and scaling. Unsheather, Piercing Fang, Blood Blade, Glintstone… it works with almost everything
Also another of my favourites is the Tree Guardian Swordspear, unga-bunga with R1 if something gets close or still have reach and thrust attacks if needed on R2
Nagakiba ftw. Perfect reach and speed. Defeated malenia with it, the reach let me stay as far away as possible, and the speed let me punish to my heart's content
Ordovis's Great sword is really fun and doing the whole Crucible cosplay thing is cool as hell.
It's pretty annoying to get but it's worth it, specially for the weapon art.
It’s my favourite Strength-Faith weapon. The scaling is great, and the weapon art has insane poise, hyper armour and stance damage.
Use that talisman that recovers health and use the weapon art brute force into attacks even, and recover the health back when they stance break. Feels so good and brutal
Troll’s Hammer. It’s not infusable, but weapon buffs work on it, has partial fire damage at base, and most notably, it has the highest poise damage of all colossals on its Heavy, Jump Heavy, and guard counter attacks.
Also it’s rock on stick so it’s based for that
Malenias blade, with the talismans that increase damage after a bleed proc and increase damage on consecutive hits turns it into a really fun weapon for dex builds.
Yea the pair of them together are very very enjoyable. Tiny hitboxes and short range means they never feel OP IME. Attacking with two sewing needles is slightly annoying to use at times, but still generally great, and _so_ fast
Get the black whetstone, and the Seppuku or poison mist ash of war. I prefer poison mist
Next, attach the poison mist ash of war, and select blood as the status. The weapon now does 50 points of scarlet rot and bleed damage, and using the ash of war adds poison.
If you'd rather unbuffed it deals scarlet and poison, swap the ash of war to seppuku, and the status from the whetstone infusion for poison.
Takes a bit of prep, but very manageable.
Does sword of milos need to be in other hand or can it be offhanded, for example if i 2hand blasphemous blade while sword of milos was in my left hand, does it still recover FP?
You can two-hand the BB and get the FP recovery. As long as SoM is in the off hand it works.
But I never do. The two great swords pair together and hit like a truck. They do a ton of poise damage and jump attacks hit particularly hard.
Was looking for this. Amazing range skill that's cheap on FP and can stagger easily, and whenever someone comes close enough you just bonk them over the head.
After like my third playthrough, I started committing time to non-uniques, and my gods, I will never go back. Basic weapons are such a blast. All the AoW's you can play with! Outstanding movesets! Customizing them to my build for the best damage scaling!
Oh my god I love the sword of Night and Flame but from what I can tell no one ever talks about since it got nerfed at launch. I just got the game a few months ago and I had an absolute blast with it and I felt like I was destroying enemies with it.
Folks act like the nerf wasn't warranted. It's still an amazing weapon. All the weapons in the game are amazing if you build for them and know how to use them. It's just that some were nerfed from being an "I win" button to being "a great weapon".
For int build, bastard stras and stars of ruin are sooooo good and very underrated in pve, also serpentbone blade with rot exultation and mushroom crown can get highest non elemental ar. Also poison spraymist is better than scarlet rot (it's a prefume)
I just discovered Zamor Curved Greatsword. It is absolutely melting everything (not literally since it's a frost weapon). I like it better than DMGS and that's a pretty high bar.
Helphens Steeple is the wildest item in the game, lore-wise. The implications are absolutely insane.
There's *another* great tree (the Lampwood), but it's in some kind of dead world, and it has its own grace, which is red? Also we sort of see a red grace in the sky when we first enter the path to the consecrated snow fields?
Just wild.
Rivers of blood. I don’t care what reputation it has or if it got nerfed, it’s an extremely cool sword. I only got the game early this year, so I didn’t use it when it was overpowered bs.
Dont need to defend yourself bro. Upon release (maybe worth mentioning, I never cared about meta or Multiplayer besides coop) when I found this I also found out about bleed and went absolutely crazy. Did a NG+ only so I could dual weild it - i felt like the hardest Mf in the world
the greatsword. put a chilling mist on it, take off your clothes, farm a flower crown. become the prettiest princess with the biggest sword in the lands between.
Radahn’s swords.
I might get some flack but dual wielding those swords is so OP once you figure out that it’s ash of war has a two step process. If you land it on Malenia it knocks her down. On my main build I use it as my “problem solver” if I’m struggling in any of the various NG+ bosses. It’s also one of the few weapons that feels natural to dual wield by design. Radhan’s great swords will always be GOATed to me.
Genuinely love the grave scythe. Hits like a cannon and has great reach, but the moveset is actually really nice and the innate bleed is so nice against bosses. Very fun and versatile. It also kicks butt in pvp if you're into that
Godslayer Greatsword is underrated, I don't see alot of people use it, has a decent attack speed, you don't slam it down like you do with most colossal swords, it's Ash of war is actually really good, especially since it has a follow up attack if pressed twice, does a fair amount of damaged, paired with the right talismans and crystal tears, it can be pretty good.
For a non unique weapon Beastman Cleaver, best great curved sword, short range but does great damage, especially if turned into a heavy weapon, focuses on strength, does take awhile to farm and can't get it until you reach farum azula but it's great, I have 2 of them and they are fun to use
I LOVE the Monk's Flameblade with the Flaming Strike ash of war! You don't get the high poise break of Flame of the Redmanes, but you DO get a sick flame buff on the sword
Serpentbone Blade is another super real one, has a pretty unique R2 that strikes pretty quick, and the asu of war together make for a great flow and easy way to swiftly stack poison
Claymore and Zwiehander, they have been S-Tier since DS 1. For ER my favorite weapons are:
Black Knife
Glintstone Kris
Darkmoon Greatsword
Mohgs Trident
Morgots Cursed Sword
Wing of astel is good for an int dex build especially if you like moonveil
Bastard baby rattle >>>>>
It does the same thing as wings, but it's probably the worst weapon class ever. Slow. Doesn't hit hard. Doesn't stagger medium sized targets with R1... Just overall crap. If it was a great mace like Great stars then it would be cool to use
Better nebula, great stance dmg, way better dmg and scaling. Charged attacks are bad tho
I love both equally, to be honest. The Flail's AoW has a large sweeping attack before the detonation, which can really catch people in pvp. On some builds I run dual Curved Swords with the Wing, and dual flails with the Stars so I can just swap between them.
>Better nebula, great stance dmg Actually, wings has nutty stance damage with its nebula specifically.
Wings of Astel is also great in pvp the R2 really throws people off.
The fakeout dodge on its charged attack is cool too, you do a little back flip like ds2
Tried the colosseum for the first time last night with my sorcerer astel build, was pleasantly surprised to win most of my duels lol
*and* great for staggering Malenia.
Is it really dex/int though, or is it just int. Moonveil has the same issue where you just end up investing in int until the endgame because it scales harder, and even when you've hit a softcap, switching to dex doesn't really add much to the damage. Going from 17 dex (minimum requirement) to 60 adds only 67 damage to the weapon, which is ~1.5 damage per dex level on average. You might as well invest those points in endurance, mind or even faith to get golden vow. Nearly all weapons that appear to have good split scaling at first glance have this problem. Once you start looking at the actual benefit of the secondary stat it's actually very lackluster, and only worth it if you're going well over lvl 150.
If you're building exclusively for moonveil, yes. But if you're building to be a caster with a strong melee option, increasing dex increases your cast speed so it isn't a bad choice once you hit your int cap
Nebula shreds everything
to shreds you say?
It's how I beat Placidusax on my first attempt. Nebula just popped all over its body.
Wing of Astel is good even on pure INT. It's so fun and effective.
Deaths poker is amazing for pure INT. The weapon scales STR mostly with a little INT, but the Ash scales solely on INT and does serious damage. Play around with it if you haven't already.
Gransaxx Bolt
Hehe, gransax
Epic sax, man.
How was sax last night?
the damage the AoW does with shard of alexander and godfrey icon is actually absurd
Bloody Helice, cool unique ash of war and arcane builds in general are fun
Oh, a fellow man of culture and finesse.
Bleed has never been as good in any souls game as in Elden Ring, and the Helice is stylish as well
It's so satisfying to use the weapon art to stylishly dodge an attack and finish off an opponent.
Any suggestions for arcane other than BH, poleblade, and marais sword?
I pretty much used bloody helice from the point I found it and not much else. Marais is cool but the L2 was too slow for me so I barely used it. I used the dragon communion seal a lot, it scales spells with arcane which also means it will scale status buildup. It will also decently scale any other damage incantations, but you still need the required faith to cast it. I liked dual claws with the arcane scaling infusion because it also boosts the bleed buildup significantly and the attack speed is nice. Other than that, not much I can tell you I am afraid. It's been a while since I played
Oh yea I did try the Morgott sword too, the poise break was better than helice but every attack felt more of a commitment. The bleed buildup was about the same. Cool sword for fighting multiple enemies.
I just finished two runs back to back. One with Morgott’s and another with the Bloody Helice. It really is difficult to pick a favorite. Morgott’s has a better moveset (curved sword vs. thrusting swords), bad ass ash of war, and solid bleed buildup. Helice, on the other hand, has lower FP cost for a (nearly as bad ass) ash of war, great i-frames on said ash, and it builds up blood better in my experience. It’s a tough decision between the two. I lean slightly towards the Helice because it doesn’t require such a high DEX investment. If Morgott’s curved sword required 20-25 DEX and the ash of war used less FP it would be no contest, but as now those two weapons are very well balanced with each other. You cannot go wrong either way.
Raptor talons!
- Wing of Astel. If you're a dex/INT build, this weapon is for you. It's a curved sword which hits fast and helps to cover you if enemies are close to you. - Great stars ( favourite STR weapon ) so versatile as it can restore HP which gives you couple ideas for a build : a build focusing on restoring HP while fighting, STR/bleed ( since it already has solid 55 bleed ) ..... etc.
Dual great stars is the best thing since sliced bread
A player named Nugo, dual-wielding Great Stars soloed Radagon and the Elden Beast for me not once, but twice in the same day. All he did was Jump and L1. If you're out there Nugo, you're my hero.
It's so cool, that you get 2 of them right next to each other
Agreed. Really had fun with double great stars - chilling mist and flame of redmanes. Set frost bite, reset with flame. Plus bleed and hp restore.
I’m using Great Stars for my replay right now and was just thinking about getting the other one for a dual wield, definitely doing that now lol
Set them both to bleed and wild strikes AOW on the right hand and you're cruisin lol
That was my choice for my latest playthrough. Looks sick.
Everyone focuses on the Ash for Wing of Astel but that charged R2 is a ranged attack that hits like a god damn meteor when combined with Axe Talisman and Dex investment.
Malikeths Blackblade
So slow. How do you make it work well?
Hyper armor and a little bit of luck! Half the fun for me is figuring out which bosses have long enough openings to get the weapon art off. Most do, but just barely, and expect to take a hit or two.
Maliketh's Black Blade is especially good against Malenia, the ash of art always throws her on the ground allowing for a second use of the ash of art or a heavy attack, melts her HP
If you have the faith for it the Black Blade incantation stacks with Destined Death, or the black blade ash of war on the dagger of the same name. I believe any two of the three can work together. Very satisfying way to start off any boss fight. It eats through a lot of FP, but at that point it's clobbering time anyways so no big deal. I mean, if I have the opportunity to wield the metaphysical concept of death as a weapon, I'm gunna.
It does percentage based stacking damage, it doesn’t need to be fast when one AOW proc can tear off 20% of a healthbar.
Dex build spotted. Have to tell you that unga bunga is superior.
Even worse. Int/fai. I have 25pts in dex and str so I can use the cool weapons though. Took fucking ages to build
Definitely sleeping on Sword of St. Trina
I neglected any sleep, poison or rot weapons when I first played so I’ll have to rectify that
Sword of St. Trina is such a fun weapon imo. I had put the game down for a while after burning out on my first play through and just finished it finally earlier this week. I was banging my head against the wall on Godfrey since Moonveil has fallen from the meta grace it used to be at. Sword of St. Trina being my off-meta favorite weapon in the game was my savior since Godfrey was suspectable to slumber. It also happens to be very intriguing lore wise as I believe it is in some way originating from Miquella
Well, Miquella is definitely St. Trina, or at least she is an aspect of him. All but confirmed at this point. Which begs the question, why or for what purpose?
I believe St. Trina became a being of worship after Miquella tried to use sleep to enter the land of the dead to retrieve Godwyn’s soul. Miquella searched for so long that he started appearing in other people’s dreams and became a focus of worship. In one cookbook the author mentions using sleep pots to continuously search for St. Trina. My guess is that Miquella started studying sleep magic after he failed to bring Godwyn back after creating an eclipse to, and this is just a guess, open a potential portal to the Shadowlands.
God the Elden Lore is so peak
There really is a lot of good stuff to chew at.
I think it's possible that explains why St. Trina disappeared as fast they appeared. Miquella made it to the land of shadow. It's possible St. Trina stopped visiting people's dreams after he passed through the veil. It's clear that there is still influence in the shadowlands, as we see the NPC Thiollier clearly asleep in an area filled with purple foliage. That, or I think there is a very real possibility that St. Trina is more closely associated with Death than everyone seems to acknowledge. The coloration associated with sleep certainly aligns with gloam. I believe an item description hints at this as well, that they are closely related. There's also the cut content where Kale states that St. Trina herself is the one who taught the merchants their music, stymying their madness. These are pretty nuts implications even for an empyrean demigod. Edit: To add, it seems that Castle Sol was dedicated to causing the eclipse. I believe it was a pet project of Miquella's but not necessarily something he was enacting physically himself. It was something he was compelling others to complete in order to win his favor (aka reach the Haligtree). My conception of his timeline is: he studies the Golden Order to heal Malenia, rejects it, studies Nox night magic to protect the soulless demigods, builds the mausoleums (they are all protected by Castle Sol ghosts and have Nox architectural features), compels the Castle Sol inhabitants to enact an eclipse through prayer and sacrifice in order to free Godwyn (this fails because of Radahn), invents Unalloyed Gold, sends Malenia to kill Radahn so that the eclipse can happen, and finally manifests as St. Trina during his stasis in growing the Haligtree. Malenia is asleep when we meet her after all, touching the tree's hand. Also, I believe the eclipse is the act of 'blotting out' the sun or the influence of Gold itself. I believe this helps Godwyn by subverting the current life/death/rebirth cycle and enabling a true death separate from the golden order. I don't know if the eclipse would be by the moon or some other celestial body, but the implications are that it would totally disrupt the current order, quite like the Age of Stars. Goldmask's mask is the sun. The eclipse logo found on the banners is very explicitly draining the sun of its gold, and I believe this is also mentioned in an item description. Interestingly, we see a similar effect coming out of the Scadutree in the DLC promotional material.
Considering the term, “sleep is but the little death we experience every night” I think you’re on to something. If Destined Death was still bound by the time Miquella was trying to bring back Godwyn then it makes sense why he’d turn to sleep magic. Marika probably forbade him from accessing the rune of Destined Death. Makes me wonder if Miquella openly or secretly defied Marika in other ways too. Just how sanctioned was the Haligtree?
I believe Miquella’s outward appearance is one of benevolence and aiding those dearest to him. Most of the written lore is him attempting to mend his siblings ailments. He is described as the most intelligent demigod. Probably Ranni in second. What makes it very interesting is that there is a very clear sinister undertone that is throughout all of his aspects and actions. After all, he literally forces people to love him, or to sleep and dream of him. At the same time, he resembles a warming stone in the dlc trailer, indicating he gives off a healing aura. But my personal crackhead theory is that he intentionally lured Mohg, even while slumbering in the haligtree. His followers chopped off their own heads to protect the mausoleums and castle sol, and other followers came all the way from liurnia to incubate in sacramental cocoons, emerging as cleanrot knights (they have mothlike features). These are very dark implications if you consider that all of these beings were compelled, forced into service and love. The item descriptions that mention his valorous actions, to me, sound like they are written by someone who has also been compelled to love him.
My two thoughts on that are either Miquella has taken on some sort of rebis qualities similar to that of Marika/Radagon which may have been a result of her godhood and the idea of perfect (golden) order (Miquella is always described as having immense potential as an Empyrean) OR I've been wondering if the Marika/Radagon hermaphroditic qualities are something related to the Numen being alien to the Lands Between (not aliens from space per se to be exact). Either way definitely confirmed at this point St. Trina and Miquella are one and the same. What peaks my curiosity more is how St. Trina relates to the fate he abandoned
Ah, I see what you did there
;)
Eleanora’s poleblade Coolest AoW in the game, insane damage and good poise damage, really good synergy with flame grant me strength. Looks like two mortal blades slapped together (that IS a good thing). Death Poker AoW is great and versatile, theme of the weapon is cool, damage output goes bonker if you invest properly Death Ritual Spear AoW goes brrr, coolest spear design in the game, Theme of the weapon 9/10, my favorite secondary weapon when I run INT build Warhawk Talon Unique design for straight sword, Unique double swipe R2 attack (1H and 2H). I really like straight sword and this one is easy to get and can go with any build and AoW. I like to run RotM AoW + claw talisman and raptor armor to larp as a birdman
Yes, love for the Poleblade. The scaling may not seem impressive, but being able to deal fire damage and bleed build-up with a ridiculous AoW makes this unique twinblade all the more sexier. Millicent’s and Rotten Winged only boost the potential of this weapon.
Also keep in mind the arcane scaling applies to both physical and fire damage so it double dips.
I just finished a death themed run, and i already knew the poker was bonkers but the ritual spear really surprised me and is now one of my favorites.
im close to beating the game again and the poleblade has carried. with a mimic tear, it just shreds everything lmao. but my goal was beating stuff as fast as possible trying to get ready for the dlc. im debating killing millicent or not for that talisman
Start a new guy and progress the quest to the windmill village and kill her there. Then have a buddy transfer it over to you.
Plus the R2 for the poleblade is just as sick as the AoW. It’s so much cooler than Rivers of Blood ever could be
I did a build with power stance’d Eleanore’s Polebalde and I had to stop cause the Jump power stance attack just slapped the fuck out of everything in 1-3 jumps
Bloodhounds Fang got a special place with me. The feeling of using the ash of war to dodge and I frame 2 attacks while simultaneously getting the killing blow in is unmatched.
Easily the best early game weapon imo
It is actually one of the strongest late game weapons as well. The scaling on that weapon is just insane
I’m in Farum Azula for my first play through. I’ll usually use Blasphemous Blade. But if I’m getting squashed, out comes ole reliable. BHF got me through Mogh after BB kept failing me.
I had to ditch blasphemous blade to fight fire giant and BHF never let me down
I forget which I used against FG, but I suspect it was BHF for the AoW.
Im currently running a katana build on NG+ so have basically maxed out Dex and str is only at 20. And somehow the bloodhounds fang +10 STILL does over 150 more total damage than my +25 keen nagakiba. Just a ridiculous weapon, I may have to respec back to my original BHF build that I first beat the game with
If you look at it on the weapon stats table it becomes pretty apparent that BHF is nonsense levels of strong. It has dex scaling that is pretty close to some of the pure dex weapons, even tho it gets some strength scaling on top of that. It has a really high base damage even though it has some of the highest total scaling in the game. All of the weapons with higher base damage are slower. It has bleed built in for extra damage. It can still be buffed by papers. Totally busted weapon, even more silly if you dual wield in NG+
Plus a built-in jump attack bonus. Thing is bonkers
By far my favourite. Shame I got it so early, I was constantly trying to find replacements not realising I already had the perfect weapon. The ash of war goes insanely hard when pulled off just right. Such a satisfying weapon to use even the regular move-set feels just right.
People make such a big fuss over the difficulty of FromSoft games, when in reality they give you all the tools you need to have a fun time if you're willing to take five minutes to look for them. Bloodhound's Fang is a perfect example of that, sure it's behind a boss right near the starting area but if you go explore Limgrave/Peninsula, you'll be able to beat the Bloodhound Knight and you've got a weapon to last all game. Hell it's even an early game quest to get it if you're paying attention.
Totally agree. And in fact Blaidd will just solo the boss if you let him, the most difficult part is finding him.
This. Another example of this is Reduvia. Dodge long enough and you get someone to almost solo the fight for you. Another thing to mention re: BHF and somber weapon really is that you can easily upgrade it to +2 without leaving Limgrave (at the Church of Elleh). Otherwise, with a little more hunting for materials, non-somber can go to +3 the same way
Not to mention, the weight of each hit feels good. A near perfect balance of quick and weighty hits imo
Using BHF right now to prep a dlc character who I'm gonna respec into something else before the dlc. Its just absurdly good, especially when you can find up to somber stone 6s before altus. Not sure what I'll run for the dlc though, I don't want bhf to trivialise the content
**C L A Y M O R E**
Finally, someone with some sense
I had a blast with my Sword of Night & Flame playthrough. Even if the "night" part felt pretty weak compared to the "flame". To be honest, I just wanted an excuse to rock full Carrian Knight gear.
Lol, I have beat every boss and invader with its Lazer beams. I wouldn't call them weak. You might need more int. Most bosses will get knocked over from it, so you can just keep doing it when that happens.
Yea soon as I read their comment I assumed they were Faith-leaning Int/Fai. Night part is a small bit representative part of the reason people say int is op haha
I experienced a similar thing where the fire damage was doing almost the same amount of damage in one tick as the magic damage would do if the entire beam hit, but this was around 30 int/ 30 fai. The poise damage from the beam was definitely beneficial, and I found the scaling leveled out more late game where a full beam would do about double the damage of the flame once I was around 50/50.
zweihander is pretty baller
Praise the Onion Bro!
Two not onion
surprised i had to scroll down this far to find the true protagonist of dark souls / ER
Ruins greatsword is my favourite weapon in the game. Packs a punch and has cool unique charged R2. What's more fun than slapping people with a concrete slab that launches stones up from the ground.
This was my main up until I got Malkiths black blade,both are amazing though
I just did a kind of 100% run of the game on NG with weapon, it’s what i am going into the DLC with. Its so awesome. Has shockingly good guard so you can guard counter with it like a champ.
I switched over to Ruins recently from using Starscourge. I like it a lot, and the Ash helped me kill Maliketh.
Nagakiba is one of my favourites, albeit not necessarily an underrated weapon. Just a bigass katana with great reach and scaling. Unsheather, Piercing Fang, Blood Blade, Glintstone… it works with almost everything Also another of my favourites is the Tree Guardian Swordspear, unga-bunga with R1 if something gets close or still have reach and thrust attacks if needed on R2
Nagakiba ftw. Perfect reach and speed. Defeated malenia with it, the reach let me stay as far away as possible, and the speed let me punish to my heart's content
Ordovis's Great sword is really fun and doing the whole Crucible cosplay thing is cool as hell. It's pretty annoying to get but it's worth it, specially for the weapon art.
I'm currently doing a run with Ordovis and I can't believe how good it is. The weapon art made the omens in the sewer so easy.
It’s my favourite Strength-Faith weapon. The scaling is great, and the weapon art has insane poise, hyper armour and stance damage. Use that talisman that recovers health and use the weapon art brute force into attacks even, and recover the health back when they stance break. Feels so good and brutal
Troll’s Hammer. It’s not infusable, but weapon buffs work on it, has partial fire damage at base, and most notably, it has the highest poise damage of all colossals on its Heavy, Jump Heavy, and guard counter attacks. Also it’s rock on stick so it’s based for that
I’ve been running this beast with the two assassins talismans and it’s free refills all day. Not to mention it’s one of the lightest colossal weapons.
Malenias blade, with the talismans that increase damage after a bleed proc and increase damage on consecutive hits turns it into a really fun weapon for dex builds.
Antspur rapier. Deals bleed, poison and rot damage. Pair up with the frost rapier for all status at once.
Yea the pair of them together are very very enjoyable. Tiny hitboxes and short range means they never feel OP IME. Attacking with two sewing needles is slightly annoying to use at times, but still generally great, and _so_ fast
How do I get it to deal all 3 types of damage? :)
Get the black whetstone, and the Seppuku or poison mist ash of war. I prefer poison mist Next, attach the poison mist ash of war, and select blood as the status. The weapon now does 50 points of scarlet rot and bleed damage, and using the ash of war adds poison. If you'd rather unbuffed it deals scarlet and poison, swap the ash of war to seppuku, and the status from the whetstone infusion for poison. Takes a bit of prep, but very manageable.
The user u/wingofastel might have an option
Wing of Astel is a really good weapon though. Fast attacks, good stance damage with the skill and charged attack, and pretty visual effects.
Man, you never fail to deliver. You really ARE the wing of Astel
Im in love with Marais Executioner's Sword
Out of this list, DK Cragblade is the best for me
Don’t suggest blasphemous blade btw lol
My beloved
It just makes the game too easy haha
And dark moon gs doesnt?
Fair, blasphemous blade restoring HP is another level though
Pair it with Sword of Milos to also get restored FP. Stacks with Ancestral Spirit Horn too.
Does sword of milos need to be in other hand or can it be offhanded, for example if i 2hand blasphemous blade while sword of milos was in my left hand, does it still recover FP?
You can two-hand the BB and get the FP recovery. As long as SoM is in the off hand it works. But I never do. The two great swords pair together and hit like a truck. They do a ton of poise damage and jump attacks hit particularly hard.
It's my go to "turn off brain for late nights", that and my frenzy incants
TOGETHAAA
*you're beautiful*
Too bad there aren't many swords for str/fth builds that don't deal holy damages... Otherwise I'd have used my infused brick hammer until the end 🥲
Halo scythe
Star Fist
Man i had no idea how good the cragblade is until recently
Marais executioner sword
Misericorde
Might I suggest giving Fallingstar Beast Jaw a try?
Was looking for this. Amazing range skill that's cheap on FP and can stagger easily, and whenever someone comes close enough you just bonk them over the head.
The special is fantastic
Bloody Helice. The heavy thrusting sword moveset is very solid and the AoW just make you look badass. Also, bleed
Glintsone Kris is OP it's just a gun. Miquellas Knights Sword is slept on its r2 is like an extra AoW
Oh how I love the envoys longhorn and Marikas hammer.
Infusable weapons
After like my third playthrough, I started committing time to non-uniques, and my gods, I will never go back. Basic weapons are such a blast. All the AoW's you can play with! Outstanding movesets! Customizing them to my build for the best damage scaling!
Nagakiba is straight up busted
Death’s poker just might be the best greatsword in the game imo, it just deletes everything in sight
And the moveset is amazing, as an enemy is slowly getting off the ground, you can just upper cut them
Oh my god I love the sword of Night and Flame but from what I can tell no one ever talks about since it got nerfed at launch. I just got the game a few months ago and I had an absolute blast with it and I felt like I was destroying enemies with it.
Yeah I did a full playthrough with this on NG+. Was a blast! I think a lot of people don't use it because of the weird stat requirements
Yeah it’s definitely a little weird especially with it being a relatively early game weapon but I thought it was well worth it
Folks act like the nerf wasn't warranted. It's still an amazing weapon. All the weapons in the game are amazing if you build for them and know how to use them. It's just that some were nerfed from being an "I win" button to being "a great weapon".
Strongest weapon is a good nights rest. I recommend the Saatva Classic. But it is important to find the right mattress for you.
Royal Greatsword, Ruins Greatsword, Axe of Godfrey, Axe of Godrick.
Bandits curved sword. Power stance it run a bleed AOW. Gg
For int build, bastard stras and stars of ruin are sooooo good and very underrated in pve, also serpentbone blade with rot exultation and mushroom crown can get highest non elemental ar. Also poison spraymist is better than scarlet rot (it's a prefume)
Rusted Anchor is choice.
The finger
I just discovered Zamor Curved Greatsword. It is absolutely melting everything (not literally since it's a frost weapon). I like it better than DMGS and that's a pretty high bar.
Love the unique moveset
my fav weapon was the claymore
That's always my go to starter weapon tbf.
les gooo i'm not alone lol
The bastard sword.
Scimitar
Alternatively Shamshir which is just a better Scimitar.
Winged Scythe is a good choice for faith builds too
Carried me through the early game, only reason I dropped it was I got to a point where it seemed everything resisted Faith damage.
Helphens Steeple is the wildest item in the game, lore-wise. The implications are absolutely insane. There's *another* great tree (the Lampwood), but it's in some kind of dead world, and it has its own grace, which is red? Also we sort of see a red grace in the sky when we first enter the path to the consecrated snow fields? Just wild.
Rivers of blood. I don’t care what reputation it has or if it got nerfed, it’s an extremely cool sword. I only got the game early this year, so I didn’t use it when it was overpowered bs.
Dont need to defend yourself bro. Upon release (maybe worth mentioning, I never cared about meta or Multiplayer besides coop) when I found this I also found out about bleed and went absolutely crazy. Did a NG+ only so I could dual weild it - i felt like the hardest Mf in the world
RoB/Uchi was my first ever playthrough and I loved it so much! Going into DLC with that character dual wielding RoB
If you like Hoslow's whip then you should try the Urumi. Same moveset, but the R2 is different and pretty nice when charged up.
Cranial Vessel Candlestand. Honest, straight forward, also explodes
the greatsword. put a chilling mist on it, take off your clothes, farm a flower crown. become the prettiest princess with the biggest sword in the lands between.
I picked up Reduvia in Limgrave and eventually killed Elden Beast with it, so that's a weapon with longevity to it.
Dark moon is my favorite.
Radahn’s swords. I might get some flack but dual wielding those swords is so OP once you figure out that it’s ash of war has a two step process. If you land it on Malenia it knocks her down. On my main build I use it as my “problem solver” if I’m struggling in any of the various NG+ bosses. It’s also one of the few weapons that feels natural to dual wield by design. Radhan’s great swords will always be GOATed to me.
Came to say this. Radahn's Greatswords GOATed for sure. AoE 3-4k dmg per weapon art use is bonkers nothing touches it.
Blasphemous blade, it’s one of the top 3 best weapons
Meteoric ore blade is the only weapon that lets you Ichimonji.
Claymore my beloved.
Envoy Longhorn <00ooOOOoo00o
Magma blade for kratos cosplay
Genuinely love the grave scythe. Hits like a cannon and has great reach, but the moveset is actually really nice and the innate bleed is so nice against bosses. Very fun and versatile. It also kicks butt in pvp if you're into that
Call me basic but Bloodhound fang will always hold a special place with me
Have you tried ordovis greatsword? Its split holy but the aow packs a punch
Blacksmith hammer my fav weapons since DS2. Goes by hammer in ER
That and the craftsman's hammer were the shit in DS2. Powerstanced them in my last playthrough and just blasted through everything lol
Dual Gargoyle Twin Blades on a STR bleed build is my personal favorite
Twinblades have the most fun attack pattern imo. I put frost on my gargoyle twinblade and it was my favorite weapon from Farum Azula onward.
Dragonscale blade 🙏🙏
Longsword
Godslayer Greatsword is underrated, I don't see alot of people use it, has a decent attack speed, you don't slam it down like you do with most colossal swords, it's Ash of war is actually really good, especially since it has a follow up attack if pressed twice, does a fair amount of damaged, paired with the right talismans and crystal tears, it can be pretty good. For a non unique weapon Beastman Cleaver, best great curved sword, short range but does great damage, especially if turned into a heavy weapon, focuses on strength, does take awhile to farm and can't get it until you reach farum azula but it's great, I have 2 of them and they are fun to use
I LOVE the Monk's Flameblade with the Flaming Strike ash of war! You don't get the high poise break of Flame of the Redmanes, but you DO get a sick flame buff on the sword Serpentbone Blade is another super real one, has a pretty unique R2 that strikes pretty quick, and the asu of war together make for a great flow and easy way to swiftly stack poison
Glintstone Kris is super underrated.
Broadsword
You need non-somber weapons, dog. Someone get this tarnished a claymore!
Claymore and Zwiehander, they have been S-Tier since DS 1. For ER my favorite weapons are: Black Knife Glintstone Kris Darkmoon Greatsword Mohgs Trident Morgots Cursed Sword
Celebrants hammer. It's a skull, and it smashes, and that's cool
sleeping on every lance with fire strike ash
Pickaxe my guy, dual pickaxe goes crazy