Curious first impression, kung fu or brutal claw?

[crushcommando]

So I remember in the trailer I was really captivated by seeing the flying kicks and such and I believe I just picked up the wraps for them. I also fought the NPC guy who had the beast claw in the starter zone and have that. Now I'm under no illusions either will be good, as someone who has done a punch build at least in my experience they're dreadful vs bosses for the sole reason of having horrendous reach and low stance dmg. But if you guys have tried them out I'm curious which has felt stronger/more fun?

[Varal]

As someone who was excited for both, I've tried them both out. Beast Claws seem more viable as a bossing weapon, but I've only got one of the martial arts weapons so far, and while slow, it still packs a punch. I could see it being fun for PVP, especially with how much poise damage it seems to do.

Both are fun however, and while I don't find myself turning to the martial arts in a boss fight, they are good for cleaning up mobs.

[crushcommando]

Originally posted by Varal:

As someone who was excited for both, I've tried them both out. Beast Claws seem more viable as a bossing weapon, but I've only got one of the martial arts weapons so far, and while slow, it still packs a punch. I could see it being fun for PVP, especially with how much poise damage it seems to do.

Both are fun however, and while I don't find myself turning to the martial arts in a boss fight, they are good for cleaning up mobs.

good to know, also there's more martial arts weapons? I got the wraps and assumed that was it, now im excited to find more!

[king_of_jamaica]

I only have Dryleaf Arts, the first hand-to-hand weapon you get, and I am thoroughly underwhelmed.

As you would expect, it has basically no stagger unless you use the charged R2 attacks, and the R1 attacks are surprisingly slow, so you will take a lot of hits trying to actually use the combo. Enemies in general seem to have way more poise and hyper-armor in SotE.

Also, the weapon cannot be two-handed, so you're missing the extra damage of doing so. I mean, you can two-hand it, but you do practically no damage. At least when I tried it my damage went from about 400 per hit down to about 10 per hit. Maybe a bug, who knows.

Maybe once you get the other weapon you can power stance them and it becomes better, but so far I'm very tempted to just go back to my boring old Great Mace.