I can't understand weapon upgrades and scaling..someone help?

[KatGirl]

this is my first ever souls game and i am getting annoyed by DEATHS..but the aggression and uniqueness of every enemy is really astonishing in this game :D

though i dont seem to get how exactly the weapon scaling or the weapon upgrades actually work....
i mean i am a sorcerer(going for melee mage build) and i upgraded my str to 10 yet i am seeing the daggers damage 57(the blue stat)
now after i upgraded my str to 11 its damage is still 10...wtf?
its damage has been 57 the first time i got it... so how exactly do scaling work???
and how do i know what has been bonused because of my stats?can't figure out staves either,
do upgrading staves only upgrade casting speed?also why is there a defensive stat for every weapon?

also how exactly do armors work?? do i get any benefit for wearing mage looking armors??? do armors scale with my level?how do i check

PS : forgive me if i am sounding lazy or stupid...but the sheer amount of numbers i see after i look at an weapon/armor stats is really confusing me

[Majestic]

Hold on. http://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Upgrades#.U2tQ8yin6M8 -Ill leave this here. hope it helps.

[KatGirl]

already read that....but what exactly does decreasing stat scaling mean??if i upgrade my weapon it should get better right?

[Kamen Kreuz]

The basic dagger scales poorly with strength, and is definitely a dexterity weapon. Look under the weapon's stat requirements in the bottom left. The letters indicate how well the weapon scales with that stat. From worst to best, -, E, D, C, B, A, S.
In this case, the dagger has E scaling in strength and thus gets ONE damage for every THREE of strength. Dex weapons scale about 60% fast as Str weapons, but the concept is the same.
Weapons have defensive stats because they can block if put into the offhand or if wielded in two hands. Unless stated otherwise in the armor's description, only the stats on the right side matter. You can check by going into your inventory, selecting said armor and pressing X(On a controller anyway. I don't know the keybind for this. It's the item use button), then look for text that says "effect:" in the description.
Also, while looking at your equipment screen or at a piece of equipment, press [the button that opens the gesture menu] and you can look at what each number means. It won't tell you exactly how damage and defense works, but it will help you figure out the wall of stats on the right side.

[Majestic]

Yeah. The only thing that breaks weapons scaling, Usually is if you infuse it. for instance. depending on your letter grade for the weapon S-D I think. depends on how much your stats affect the damage the weapon does. So when you infuse. usually It either drops the Scaling a good couple of Letters. (some times it doesnt. depends on the weapon). And cuts the weapons Raw Damage usually around 50%. and takes up a new scaling.

For instance. If you have a weapon that has a- "S" rank scaling in dex and you put magic damage on it. that "S" rank might drop to a "C" and gain a "C" rank in magic where there was none before. Or if its a purely stat based infusion like bleed or poison then it might just simply cut the Raw damage scaling. Hence why if you going to add a weapon with a status based infusion its best to add it to a weapon that already has one to get the most out of it.

Now in the case of "Mundane" and "Raw". Mundane simply re-adjust your weapons scaling to scale with your lowest base stats. For instance if you want to use a Dex weapon and have low Dex. you would get the best benifits out of it if you applied a mundane infusion to it. While Raw simply adds more -Raw- Damage to a weapons base damage and doesnt usually effect your scaling as bad as the others. and is the same with defencive properties on amour.

[TomJoPlays [Youtube, Twitch]]

Not every weapon scales on Strength. Weapons scale differently on stats, depending on their parameter bonus, that ranges from S (best), A, B, C, D, E (worst). Daggers scale "E" on Strength and "B" on Dexterity. You can see what stat your weapon scales with when you equip your weapon. Some weapons also scales with faith or intelligence. Later in the game you can upgrade your weapon to scale with intelligence or simply cast a spell to buff your item.

As for armor, it is benificial to use lighter armor to roll faster. In Dark Souls 1 you rolled fastest with less than 25% load and then again started to "fat roll" with more than 50%. I am not 100% sure if there are more steps in Dark Souls 2. How much defence you want depending on load is more a balance thing and something you must decide for yourself. Keep in mind that weapon weight also counts.

To see what all stats does use "T" on your keyboard and mouse over or "back" on the Xbox360 controller.

[GreyKarasu]

Raw usually critically affect scaling. It only profitable on weapons without or with bad scaling. And in DSII you only need less 70% load for fast roll.

[KatGirl]

thank you for all the replies....but what type of upgrade does reinforcing do using titanite shards in majula???i mean my transgressor staff while having a brank int scaling only does 88 damage after +1 reinforce....while my begginning sorcere staff does over 99 after +1 reinforcement

[Gea Force]

to make it simple, the base damage is the damage you do independently of your stats, and the scaling provides bonus damage (the blue numbers) depending on your stats.
Reinforcing with titanite increase the base stats of the weapon and sometimes the scaling.

Upgrading the staff basically increase the damage of the spells,

Transgressor staff is better used for Hex casting while sorcerer's staff is more equilibrated. If you're going to be a melee sorcerer stick with the sorcerer staff (for now)

[hghwolf]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Chaotic Xeon:

thank you for all the replies....but what type of upgrade does reinforcing do using titanite shards in majula???i mean my transgressor staff while having a brank int scaling only does 88 damage after +1 reinforce....while my begginning sorcere staff does over 99 after +1 reinforcement

Transgressor Staff has lower base damage, so gets less per upgrade, but scales much better than the basic Sorcerors Staff. So a character with higher INT and FTH can get more damage out of it than they could the basic staff. Of course there are much better options available.

Any weapon that isn`t a boss weapon gains 10% its base damage per upgrade.