Can someone explain the letter scaling to me please?

[Jolly Devil]

So I've put in 99 hrs into this game, but I still can't understand the letter scaling on weapons. I use the Sun Sword sometimes and it has an A/A scaling, but what does that mean exactly?

[Harukage]

The better the letter the better the bonus you get. Letters go like that S->A->B->C->D-E

[Syrer]

See comment above. To add something: Scaling means your weapon gets bonus damage on the attribute it has a letter on. So the higher your stats in this attribute the higher the bonus damage.

[Cake for Mumm-Ra]

For elemental scaling, look at your scores for Lightning/Fire/Dark BNS. These scores are an indicator of how your stats are effecting elemental scaling. Ex. A high faith score increases your potential to do lightning damage. So, infusing your weapon or chime with lightning would be a much better choice than fire.

The BNS scores should tell you whether you'd be better off infusing with fire, bleed, dark or anything else.

[Jolly Devil]

Originally posted by Syrer:

See comment above. To add something: Scaling means your weapon gets bonus damage on the attribute it has a letter on. So the higher your stats in this attribute the higher the bonus damage.

But that's what I'm wondering. How am I supposed to know that A/A means str/dex? Which stats go with which letters, that's what I'm trying to figure out.

[Cake for Mumm-Ra]

Where are you finding these letters? It should be indicated somehow..

[Jolly Devil]

Originally posted by Mandroid:

Where are you finding these letters? It should be indicated somehow..

The A/A is what people kept telling me when I asked about the Sun Sword before. That's the only reason I know about that. But maybe I'm misunderstanding something.

[Cake for Mumm-Ra]

Take a look here for an example: http://darksouls2.wiki.fextralife.com/Zweihander

Zweihander gets D scaling in STR and C scaling in DEX. It gets a bonus from both of those scores, and it would get scaling from faith/int if you infused it as well.

Note the icons that are used. The arm is STR, the hand is DEX. When you pick up a weapon and look at it on the menu in-game, you'll see the same icons.

In the case of the sun sword, both STR and DEX get an A rating. Not one or the other.

[Harukage]

Look at icons before the letters. Than check on your status screen what each icon represents.
Most common scalings are Str, Dex for weapons and Phys Def for armor. There are also elemental scalings, Int scaling ( enchanted infusion ), poison a and bleed scalings.
Not sure if i ever saw a pure Fth scaling. Dont think it exist at all.

[bobze]

There are different tiers within each grade too so the letter system is really misleading. At the moment you are better just using it as a rough estimate and experiment through trial and error.

[Jolly Devil]

Originally posted by Mandroid:

Take a look here for an example: http://darksouls2.wiki.fextralife.com/Zweihander

Zweihander gets D scaling in STR and C scaling in DEX. It gets a bonus from both of those scores, and it would get scaling from faith/int if you infused it as well.

Note the icons that are used. The arm is STR, the hand is DEX. When you pick up a weapon and look at it on the menu in-game, you'll see the same icons.

In the case of the sun sword, both STR and DEX get an A rating. Not one or the other.

I think I understand what you're saying. So in the case of Zweihander, if I have a high Str and Dex, than the weapon performs better than it would if I just had high str?

[Burusagi]

Originally posted by Squirrel:

Originally posted by Mandroid:

Take a look here for an example: http://darksouls2.wiki.fextralife.com/Zweihander

Zweihander gets D scaling in STR and C scaling in DEX. It gets a bonus from both of those scores, and it would get scaling from faith/int if you infused it as well.

Note the icons that are used. The arm is STR, the hand is DEX. When you pick up a weapon and look at it on the menu in-game, you'll see the same icons.

In the case of the sun sword, both STR and DEX get an A rating. Not one or the other.

I think I understand what you're saying. So in the case of Zweihander, if I have a high Str and Dex, than the weapon performs better than it would if I just had high str?

Indeed.

[Princess Freaddy]

Be warned, sometimes even the same letter scaling can differ from the amount of bonus stats it will provide. A quick example is when you upgrade a weapon with a certain scaling, even though it still says the same letter, the increase in damage is better after you upgrade it. A simple way to know if a weapon has a better letter scaling than another letter scaling is to simply see the letter's color. Red means it is an inferior scaling, while Blue means a superior scaling.

[Cake for Mumm-Ra]

Originally posted by Princess Freaddy:

Be warned, sometimes even the same letter scaling can differ from the amount of bonus stats it will provide. A quick example is when you upgrade a weapon with a certain scaling, even though it still says the same letter, the increase in damage is better after you upgrade it. A simple way to know if a weapon has a better letter scaling than another letter scaling is to simply see the letter's color. Red means it is an inferior scaling, while Blue means a superior scaling.

I didn't know that, and I haven't seen anything about the color of the letter having a specific meaning. That makes me question a lot of the numbers they have for weapons on the wiki pages.