I'm confused about buffable weapons

[Azor]

At first I thought that weapons upgradable by somber smithing stones couldn't be buffed, but I buffed bloodhound fangs. So, then, I thought mixed damage type weapons were non buffable with magic/grease, but then I see people buffing Treespear, which deals holy damage and physical damage. What's the pattern?

[CazadorDeLobo]

None - it's whatever the designer chose on a whim, with this particular thing. It's been this way since Demon's Souls.

I should add that in DS2, a lot of weapons were buffable before a nerf that limited it severely, based on whether or not the weapon was "already decent" and nothing else.

[Sephylon]

Treespear was originally planned to be an infusable weapon, the data for its infusions are in the game files. It being buffable is probably someone forgetting to untick the "buffable weapon" box when they made it a non infusable weapon.

[Angel]

Escrito originalmente por CazadorDeLobo:

None - it's whatever the designer chose on a whim, with this particular thing. It's been this way since Demon's Souls.

I should add that in DS2, a lot of weapons were buffable before a nerf that limited it severely, based on whether or not the weapon was "already decent" and nothing else.

man I miss being able to buff an infused weapon like in dark souls 2

[buttchin]

Escrito originalmente por Azor:

At first I thought that weapons upgradable by somber smithing stones couldn't be buffed, but I buffed bloodhound fangs. So, then, I thought mixed damage type weapons were non buffable with magic/grease, but then I see people buffing Treespear, which deals holy damage and physical damage. What's the pattern?

Any weapon can be buffed if they don't have any special status effect, that's why heavy is better since you can buff it with anything

[CazadorDeLobo]

Escrito originalmente por Angel:

Escrito originalmente por CazadorDeLobo:

None - it's whatever the designer chose on a whim, with this particular thing. It's been this way since Demon's Souls.

I should add that in DS2, a lot of weapons were buffable before a nerf that limited it severely, based on whether or not the weapon was "already decent" and nothing else.

man I miss being able to buff an infused weapon like in dark souls 2

Fromsoftware is notorious for non-experimentation with their equipment balance in these games, for the same reason equipping a weapon in the left hand in DS1, DS3, and Elden Ring does not make you a left-handed person. In DS2, it did.

[CazadorDeLobo]

Escrito originalmente por buttchin:

Escrito originalmente por Azor:

At first I thought that weapons upgradable by somber smithing stones couldn't be buffed, but I buffed bloodhound fangs. So, then, I thought mixed damage type weapons were non buffable with magic/grease, but then I see people buffing Treespear, which deals holy damage and physical damage. What's the pattern?

Any weapon can be buffed if they don't have any special status effect, that's why heavy is better since you can buff it with anything

My man, a number of buffable weapons have status effects like Bleed - Uchi? Naginata? Grave Scythe?

[Angel]

Escrito originalmente por CazadorDeLobo:

Escrito originalmente por Angel:

man I miss being able to buff an infused weapon like in dark souls 2

Fromsoftware is notorious for non-experimentation with their equipment balance in these games, for the same reason equipping a weapon in the left hand in DS1, DS3, and Elden Ring does not make you a left-handed person. In DS2, it did.

shame you couldn't get the critical attacks in the left hand though

[CazadorDeLobo]

Escrito originalmente por Angel:

Escrito originalmente por CazadorDeLobo:

Fromsoftware is notorious for non-experimentation with their equipment balance in these games, for the same reason equipping a weapon in the left hand in DS1, DS3, and Elden Ring does not make you a left-handed person. In DS2, it did.

shame you couldn't get the critical attacks in the left hand though

With the way their games are built, I understand why not. It'd be a lot of development and debugging time, believe it or not, just to make sure that all works properly and doesn't do things like cross the stats over from the right hand, or combine them, or multiply them, or have the animation completely break on a certain weapon class, etc. Besides, you don't really need crits to deal the same or more damage over the same period of time, either with the free 2-hit stunlocks you get, or your choice of 2HL2 followed by a roll catch

Yeah sorry got carried away

[Dragonirian]

Escrito originalmente por Angel:

Escrito originalmente por CazadorDeLobo:

None - it's whatever the designer chose on a whim, with this particular thing. It's been this way since Demon's Souls.

I should add that in DS2, a lot of weapons were buffable before a nerf that limited it severely, based on whether or not the weapon was "already decent" and nothing else.

man I miss being able to buff an infused weapon like in dark souls 2

*cough*Defender's greatsword*cough*

[CazadorDeLobo]

Escrito originalmente por Dragonirian:

Escrito originalmente por Angel:

man I miss being able to buff an infused weapon like in dark souls 2

*cough*Defender's greatsword*cough*

It's always been interesting what FS decides to tune and what they don't - if it's a matter of being unaware, or not agreeing. Throne Watcher/Defender GS for example remain fully-functional with the L2 buff, and can be infused with great scaling.

This, when built for, can result in matching pre-nerf Moonlight Greatsword - a weapon nerfed to remove the ability to buff. This was likely due to not being able to figure out what was happening to the weapon's projectile after applying buffs, and therefore not being able to properly tune it for buffs.

Literally a skill issue.

[Azor]

Too bad that there is no pattern for unique weapons, whether by mistake or for balance concerns. So I have to test each unique weapon I find or look at the wiki.

My last attempt at finding a pattern was to look at Remembrance weapons. But, according to the wiki, Axe of Godfrey can be buffed, while Axe of Godrick can't, despite both being pure physical, standard type Remembrance weapons with no passive.