Best upgrade for the Parry dagger?

[Aki]

So I've been doing my second parry dagger run by now. And I'm wondering what is the best upgrade to maximise the damage of it?

My stat's are as follow:

Class: Thief
SL: 65

Vit: 10
Att: 11
End: 24
Str: 10
Dex: 55
Res: 10
Int: 15 (for Great magic weapon)
Fth: 11

Is it best to just keep the +15? It has a scaling of E in Str and A in Dex.

Please let me know what you think, thanks.

EDIT: I got an attack rating of 248 unbuffed. And an rating of 446 with Great magic weapon on. 575 with red stone ring too.

[NightmareGats]

why so much dex?

[Aki]

Originally posted by NightmareGats:

why so much dex?

Idk, It scales good with dex right? Shouldn't I do that then? I want the absolute maximum damage, I really don't care about hp.

[Sure, Not]

it does calculation for you : https://mugenmonkey.com/darksouls/weapons

[Aki]

Thanks, I'll fiddle around with it for a bit.

[The Fountaineer 🖋]

More str/dex doesn't equal more damage. It's all about weapon scaling and upgrade paths.

[Aki]

So I figured out that going 20 more levels (getting to SL 85) into intelligence can crank the damage up to 290 or something which is better than going even further in dex.

Is that actually good or would that be a waste?

[nomoreblues]

str! litttle scaling is still a lot more than no scaling...if you go +15
I don't think that (split) elemntal dmg will be better so that's what you need

[CazadorDeLobo]

Originally posted by broodmomma:

So I figured out that going 20 more levels (getting to SL 85) into intelligence can crank the damage up to 290 or something which is better than going even further in dex.

Is that actually good or would that be a waste?

50 dex is maybe good for weapons that have S scaling in dex, but not for A or below. 55 dex is waste of points for the amount of benefit gained. 40 is the soft cap, which is where the attack rating increase per level becomes much lower.

Using a weapon on an elemental path is squandering the investment into dexterity because the returns of the stats you put into are far less effective than pure damage + scaling. 290 total attack rating does not equal more damage than 248 physical attack rating.

There is unique damage calculation in this game that requires your attack rating(of each damage type) to exceed enemy defense(of each corresponding type) to see big numbers. If the attack rating of the player's attack(which is modified depending on the chosen attack/critical/counter) doesn't exceed the enemy's defense rating of the corresponding types of damage received, the damage received of each type is reduced around 30-40%.

This is why it is crucial to use split damage weapons or elemental weapons in critical attacks - the modification of the attack rating will far exceed enemy defense and allow the high attack rating of the weapon to shine. For pure types of damage, the attack rating is concentrated as one type, which allows the defense to easily be exceeded(depending on the chosen attack/critical/counter).

Tl;dr, keep the dagger physical and bump up endurance for lotsa poise

[Aki]

Originally posted by Wulf Hunter:

Originally posted by broodmomma:

So I figured out that going 20 more levels (getting to SL 85) into intelligence can crank the damage up to 290 or something which is better than going even further in dex.

Is that actually good or would that be a waste?

50 dex is maybe good for weapons that have S scaling in dex, but not for A or below. 55 dex is waste of points for the amount of benefit gained. 40 is the soft cap, which is where the attack rating increase per level becomes much lower.

Using a weapon on an elemental path is squandering the investment into dexterity because the returns of the stats you put into are far less effective than pure damage + scaling. 290 total attack rating does not equal more damage than 248 physical attack rating.

There is unique damage calculation in this game that requires your attack rating(of each damage type) to exceed enemy defense(of each corresponding type) to see big numbers. If the attack rating of the player's attack(which is modified depending on the chosen attack/critical/counter) doesn't exceed the enemy's defense rating of the corresponding types of damage received, the damage received of each type is reduced around 30-40%.

This is why it is crucial to use split damage weapons or elemental weapons in critical attacks - the modification of the attack rating will far exceed enemy defense and allow the high attack rating of the weapon to shine. For pure types of damage, the attack rating is concentrated as one type, which allows the defense to easily be exceeded(depending on the chosen attack/critical/counter).

Tl;dr, keep the dagger physical and bump up endurance for lotsa poise

Thanks alot of the in depth information about the damage.

I'll keep using the physical parry dagger then.

[nomoreblues]

any additional str-scaling (be it only from "E") stacks true on top and will make a difference I think

int - I'm not sure about buff scaling, like if your magic buff profits from higher int.
That would indeed make a difference too (since u still keep your +15 pure and true normal damage underneath)