Question about weapons

[nub]

How do you know if a weapon is STR based or DEX based?

[vamirez]

You look at its stats, specifically the scaling? The weapon scales with the attributes that show a letter - S is the best scaling (it means bonus damage goes up quickly the higher your attribute is), then A,B,C,D,E... many starting weapons have D scalings.

[nub]

It's deceiving because my Knight's Sword is DEX based, but STR is D and DEX is D.

[nub]

Oh okay, if I upgrade the sword it turns to STR D and DEX C.

[mpcgannon]

I think the whole scaling system is misleading to begin with. Aside from a great example you just gave ( str and dex are same right ) the scaling itself is different per weapon. That is a hammer with str B does not get the same bonus as a sword with str B.
We have stats accurate to the THOUSANDTH but they can't make these calculations more transparent?
:sadpanda:

[vamirez]

Originally posted by nub:

Oh okay, if I upgrade the sword it turns to STR D and DEX C.

Ah, I see what you mean - yeah I guess this is either trial and error OR just look up the weapon in a wiki...

[nfinite.recursion]

Originally posted by nub:

It's deceiving because my Knight's Sword is DEX based, but STR is D and DEX is D.

The letters are indeed deceiving because there are different tiers of scaling within that letter, so a D-tier STR scaling on one weapon may offer better scaling than D-tier DEX scaling on the same weapon. Honestly, it'd be better if Fromsoft would drop this system and just show the raw scaling multiplier.

If you take a weapon and look at it's Standard scaling you get an idea of what type of weapon it should be. Changing the infusion adds to the Standard infusion multiplier, which is why the Knight's Greatsword does better with Keen infusion. Though I'm more inclined to consider the weapon a Quality weapon and should preferably be 2-handed. However, while Quality weapons can be viable in NG, they are much more viable in NG+ where you can dump a bunch of points into both STR and DEX to maximize both scaling multipliers.

[nub]

Originally posted by nfinite.recursion:

Originally posted by nub:

It's deceiving because my Knight's Sword is DEX based, but STR is D and DEX is D.

The letters are indeed deceiving because there are different tiers of scaling within that letter, so a D-tier STR scaling on one weapon may offer better scaling than D-tier DEX scaling on the same weapon. Honestly, it'd be better if Fromsoft would drop this system and just show the raw scaling multiplier.

If you take a weapon and look at it's Standard scaling you get an idea of what type of weapon it should be. Changing the infusion adds to the Standard infusion multiplier, which is why the Knight's Greatsword does better with Keen infusion. Though I'm more inclined to consider the weapon a Quality weapon and should preferably be 2-handed. However, while Quality weapons can be viable in NG, they are much more viable in NG+ where you can dump a bunch of points into both STR and DEX to maximize both scaling multipliers.

So you're recommending I do quality over keen? I'm dual wielding.

[nfinite.recursion]

Originally posted by nub:

Originally posted by nfinite.recursion:

The letters are indeed deceiving because there are different tiers of scaling within that letter, so a D-tier STR scaling on one weapon may offer better scaling than D-tier DEX scaling on the same weapon. Honestly, it'd be better if Fromsoft would drop this system and just show the raw scaling multiplier.

If you take a weapon and look at it's Standard scaling you get an idea of what type of weapon it should be. Changing the infusion adds to the Standard infusion multiplier, which is why the Knight's Greatsword does better with Keen infusion. Though I'm more inclined to consider the weapon a Quality weapon and should preferably be 2-handed. However, while Quality weapons can be viable in NG, they are much more viable in NG+ where you can dump a bunch of points into both STR and DEX to maximize both scaling multipliers.

So you're recommending I do quality over keen?

In NG I'd do Keen to maximize damage. Personally, I'd do STR because using melee makes it much more likely that you'll get hit and pumping STR to around 60 will greatly boost your natural physical defense so you can take a hit like it's nothing.

In NG+, I'd go Quality with 50 - 55 STR and 80 DEX for 2-handing, or 80 STR and 80 DEX for dual wielding.

[nub]

So if I do STR then I take less damage than DEX? Maybe I should change my Knight's great sword to a STR based greatsword then.

I'm dual wielding it with Claymore anyways.

But then again if I do quality those won't matter.

[nfinite.recursion]

Originally posted by nub:

So if I do STR then I take less damage than DEX?

Yes. Mind you, this is mostly physical damage negation which is the most common damage type in the game.

[nub]

Okay I guess either I'll change to a new weapon or do quality.

[nfinite.recursion]

Banished Knight Greatsword is basically the same weapon, but scales better with STR. Both the Banished Knight Greatsword and Knight's Greatsword are Quality weapons and benefit tremendously from Quality infusion, assuming you have the points available to pump both STR and DEX.

[nub]

Which attributes did you guys choose? I can't decided between heavy and quality.

[Celltastic]

if you want to use quality your going to need be really high level to see any benefit
just going heavy and two handing and getting atleast 60 str and you are going to do more damage

[nub]

How about for heavy for dual wielding?