Dragon Communion Build Weapon?

[Brian]

Built a Dragon Communion Knight:

V: 47
M: 38
E: 15
S: 12
D: 18
I: 7
F: 35
A: 45

For nearly all the game, I've been power stancing 2 Regalia of Eochaids. But now I have to decide where to spend the finite amount of Somber Smithing Stones. I never use the Eochaid's special ability because I always get hammered before it does much damage. Any thoughts on if I should change it up? And if so, what would be better?

[Twisty]

Smithing Stone
Quick weapon:
Basic katana with Bloodflame Blade incantation. IMO thematically the buff goes VERY well with dragon Communion, and it adds a good amount of Bleed ontop of the katana.

Strong Weapon:
Treespear. You'll need a bit more Strength and Dex (15/22). The AoW is a 10% damage buff for the weapon. I believe it can be buffed by Bloodflame as well

Somber weapons are a bit harder to pick out as many of the "better" ones are mid+ game like Bloody Helice, Black Knife (for the debuff).

[Meewec]

hunt down the somber stone bell bearings, then the only limit on stones will be the ancient dragon ones.

[LuckyCheshire]

If you have the DLC, the Bloodfiend's Arm and the Putrescence Cleaver are fantastic. For both you'd need a little more Str though. If you want a different damage option, Euporia is also awesome, and you can wield it immediately if you two-hand. It's pretty late in the DLC though.

[Brian]

Originally posted by Meewec:

hunt down the somber stone bell bearings, then the only limit on stones will be the ancient dragon ones.

Right, that's the point I'm at now - I need to figure out which weapons to use the dragon stones on.

And yeah, I'm thinking base-game for now.

[Brian]

Originally posted by Twisty:

Smithing Stone
Quick weapon:
Basic katana with Bloodflame Blade incantation. IMO thematically the buff goes VERY well with dragon Communion, and it adds a good amount of Bleed ontop of the katana.

Strong Weapon:
Treespear. You'll need a bit more Strength and Dex (15/22). The AoW is a 10% damage buff for the weapon. I believe it can be buffed by Bloodflame as well

Somber weapons are a bit harder to pick out as many of the "better" ones are mid+ game like Bloody Helice, Black Knife (for the debuff).

Hmm okay. Now I just need to figure out if it's better to keep powerstancing or switch to shield when not casting. I'm decent enough where I don't need a shield to survive, so powerstancing is always better in that case right?

Also I hate Katanas. Not a fan of anything Japanese-looking, honestly.

[opus132]

I'm not a fan of anything Japanese themed either, but it's worth pointing out katanas are associated with dragon killing in this game, so lore wise at least there is an excuse to use them.

For shields you can use the jellyfish one. Not only this can boost spells but it's a great shield so it has that "bounce" effect that allows you to make extended use of guard counters.

Any weapon that has an innate bleed effect is worth keeping under consideration because of the occult infusion, and with low strength and dexterity, occult is the one you will be using rather than the bleed infusion.

There are also some dedicated "blood" themed weapons that are very good. Mohgwyn's spear has a crazy weapon art that has a large number of situational uses in the game. The thing can hit anything around you, it can hit enemies across a wall, it can hit enemies above you, it's pretty useful to keep around. The physical damage of the weapon scales with strength but the weapon art and fire damage scale with arcane so your stats still fit pretty well with it. It also has the max reach you can get with a spear, which is quite useful as well (don't forget with spears you can block while attacking, so reach plus defense is good combination).

With faith that high (can easily be taken near 50 with faith cracked tear etc), you should also consider using some faith based infusions, especially flame art. Yes, arcane does nothing for those but with enemies that are weak to fire it outclasses occult by quite a bit and it can help with enemies that are immune to bleed. The DLC has a great hammer that has a good scaling for both occult and flame art. No innate bleed but it's a great weapon with a neat holy after effect if do a guard counters.

[Brian]

Yeah I just found this site - https://eldenring.tclark.io/ and now it's basically all a numbers game. The Guardian Swordspear with Flame Art is by far better than the Regalia. Even the Grossmesser with Flame Art is equivilant to the Regalia and I could put whatever Keen/Heavy/Quality ash of war on it I wanted. Plus my guy is already looking like Aladdin, so maybe a more Arabian sword would be cool. Sigh, so many options.

[Fahrenheit]

Just back up the save game and try out the +10 stones. If you don't like it then revert the save.