Heavy weapons

[HolyDiver]

Is it just me or are heavy weapons like greatswords, maces, pickaxes, etc. very underpowered? They seem to do abismal damage and you have barley time to attack certain bosses who's attack windows are very limited or almost nonexistent.

[Dollmaker]

Never really had a problem with slower weapons on PvE, so dont think so.

Some weapons do suck, but for different reasons.

[Toad]

Large heavy weapons can be a lot more difficult to play with how fast bosses are. They shine best when either two-handed or dual wielded, and use jumping heavy attacks to inflict large amounts of stagger to enemies.

There are some Ashes of War like Lion's Claw that can add some nice faster moves to your large weapons. Worth experimenting to see which ones compliment your play style.

[HolyDiver]

Thanks for the advice.

[Sonnenbank]

Well Serpent Hunter is the most used weapon for PvE Challenge runs.
Which also means its the most powerful.

It may not be easy to make it work
but once you make it work the damage is ridiculous
you can script most lategame boss fights to 4-5 hit combos. (meaing boss is dead after 4-5 heavy hits)

[Meow]

Originally posted by Sonnenbank:

Well Serpent Hunter is the most used weapon for PvE Challenge runs.
Which also means its the most powerful.

It may not be easy to make it work
but once you make it work the damage is ridiculous
you can script most lategame boss fights to 4-5 hit combos. (meaing boss is dead after 4-5 heavy hits)

You use that for lvl 1. Not any lvl?

[Meow]

Yes, heavy weapons are underpowered because they are slow, needs more levels to use, cost more stamina. You can get the same dmg by powerstancing 2 light weapons, with smaller lvl investment and less stamina cost, plus faster status build up.

[HolyDiver]

I didn't know about this Serpent Hunter weapon. Is it as good as you say?

[Sonnenbank]

Originally posted by 2B:

Originally posted by Sonnenbank:

Well Serpent Hunter is the most used weapon for PvE Challenge runs.
Which also means its the most powerful.

It may not be easy to make it work
but once you make it work the damage is ridiculous
you can script most lategame boss fights to 4-5 hit combos. (meaing boss is dead after 4-5 heavy hits)

You use that for lvl 1. Not any lvl?

Serpent Hunter is the most used weapon for challenge runs in RL1 and any level.
And also for speedruns.

GinoRL1 no hit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK3re0jpJNo&t=62s&ab_channel=GinoMachino

Gino any% any level no hit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTZliRmCehc&t=4285s&ab_channel=GinoMachino

Distortion RL1 no glitch speedrun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2Vdj2VDH08&t=2297s&ab_channel=Distortion2

All done with Serpent Hunter

it needs some practice and some preparation but you can pretty much script most fights with it
see Morgot scripted with Serpent Hunter
https://youtu.be/K2Vdj2VDH08?t=3717

[bun E]

They're not that great unless you have one that has good range on the charge to one shot enemies or spam till poise break or jump attack spam for poise break, using their normal attacks is usually slow and not very worth the lag, unless there's an exceptional case such as gs/ultra gs rolling attacks which are really fast if you crouch instead of roll.

[SoundsOfNight]

No, they are very strong with stunlock, knockdown, and poise break.

[Name]

I played through on a sorcerer and a bleed build, now ive started a str zugzug build and it is definitely harder in some ways, Sure you can poise break some enemies but honestly I was poise breaking way more with gravity spells on the sorcerer and at a distance. Its been fun but slower going and sometimes like smashing my head into a brick wall.

[HolyDiver]

I,ve always prefered big beefy weapons, but honestly they aren't as vaiable as bleed, frost or sorcery for that matter. I guess this adds an extra challenge to the game, be it for the best or worst. Still elden Ring is a great game and I can see myself putting hudereds more hours in it.

[Mikamus]

Yep, they were in dark souls 3 too. For how easy they are to dodge and difficult to hit with they deal less damage than they should resulting in high risk low reward compared with a fast weapon like a straight sword.

Take the Royal greatsword. Huge AR and the ash of war does amazing damage, but you can out dps both the regular attacks and ash of war with moonveil and significantly less chance of interrupt and higher hit accuracy. Heavy weapons do not get good mileage.

[Meow]

Originally posted by Sonnenbank:

Originally posted by 2B:

You use that for lvl 1. Not any lvl?

Serpent Hunter is the most used weapon for challenge runs in RL1 and any level.
And also for speedruns.

GinoRL1 no hit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK3re0jpJNo&t=62s&ab_channel=GinoMachino

Gino any% any level no hit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTZliRmCehc&t=4285s&ab_channel=GinoMachino

Distortion RL1 no glitch speedrun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2Vdj2VDH08&t=2297s&ab_channel=Distortion2

All done with Serpent Hunter

it needs some practice and some preparation but you can pretty much script most fights with it
see Morgot scripted with Serpent Hunter
https://youtu.be/K2Vdj2VDH08?t=3717

I see. Even so, scripting fights isn't something the casual player is going to do. But maybe you can call it this games winblades, or cleaver, or rapier.

[JellyPuff]

Faster weapons were always better overall, but i'd argue, that heavy weapons are better than ever for PvE, thanks to jump-attacks and everything, including bosses, having stance-meters, which can be filled for a free crit. And guess, what kind of weapons deal tons of damage to enemy stance meters? ;)

Also, heavy-weapon balancing in the early game makes them look much weaker, than they are. After a bunch of upgrades and some stats into what they primarily scale with, their total attack-rating will eventually become noticeably higher, than that of lighter weapons.