Just looking for some advice on weapon options.

[Dakkon]

I just started playing S&S to fill my DS void.

Loving the game.

Just killed The Third Lamb. I have finally realized that I can transmute items into better gear. So figured Id ask cause I do not want to look anything up till I have beaten the game at least once. (DS code)

Which Greatsword is the best for a 2handed Str build at this point? I am not seeing my weapons scaling increase as I level them (like in DS) so I would prefer not to burn my limited resources leveling up a worthless item.

I mean I could reset my build for Maces or Axes but I am liking the 2H Swords ATM. Decent speed/range/Damage.

Just curious. Still gonna keep playing. No idea what I am doing as some things work like DS and other do not.

[clcman]

Wepon scaling usually goes down as you get into more advanced weapons, but the base attack usually increases enough to make the higher-class weapons more powerful, at least a lot of the time. Something to help out the lower-class weapons, I guess.

Right now, the Chitin Obelisk is probably your best bet (it's Class 2). It'll carry you through most of the game. Long-term, the three endgame greatswords are the Scharfrichter, the Trinity Greatsword and the Blade of Envy. The Schar is, I believe, lighter and faster, and can be one-handed, and it costs a lesser item to transmute, as well as being available earlier. It also gets S strength scaling. The Trinity and the Blade of Envy are both Class 5 (so they can't be one-handed). The Trinity has a bit of HP leech while the Blade of Envy is quite heavy (23 lbs) and swings slowly, but has both Strength and Dex scaling, which makes it useful in the long term (once you hit 50 in a stat, the benefits of raising it more go down by a lot, so reaching the cap and then getting your Dex to 50 nets you the highest greatsword damage). You also can't get the Blade of Envy until you beat the final boss, so it's only good for a NG+ run.

Oh, if you have a lot of points in Magic, then the Black Widow becomes an extremely powerful option, gaining strength as you level your spells.

Overall, the Chitin Obelisk and then the Sharfrichter is likely best for your first runthrough. Make sure to search all of the areas thoroughly, as you'll need to fight an optional boss to get either the Trinity Greatsword or the Scharfrichter.

And two-handing greatswords is a perfectly viable strategy. Though there are some frustrating lategame enemies with high slash defense, so investing in a backup greathammer will save you some grief.

[clcman]

Wepon scaling usually goes down as you get into more advanced weapons, but the base attack usually increases enough to make the higher-class weapons more powerful, at least a lot of the time. Something to help out the lower-class weapons, I guess.

Right now, the Chitin Obelisk is probably your best bet (it's Class 2). It'll carry you through most of the game. Long-term, the three endgame greatswords are the Scharfrichter, the Trinity Greatsword and the Blade of Envy. The Schar is, I believe, lighter and faster, and can be one-handed, and it costs a lesser item to transmute, as well as being available earlier. It also gets S strength scaling. The Trinity and the Blade of Envy are both Class 5 (so they can't be one-handed). The Trinity has a bit of HP leech while the Blade of Envy is quite heavy (23 lbs) and swings slowly, but has both Strength and Dex scaling, which makes it useful in the long term (once you hit 50 in a stat, the benefits of raising it more go down by a lot, so reaching the cap and then getting your Dex to 50 nets you the highest greatsword damage). You also can't get the Blade of Envy until you beat the final boss, so it's only good for a NG+ run.

Oh, if you have a lot of points in Magic, then the Black Widow becomes an extremely powerful option, gaining strength as you level your spells.

Overall, the Chitin Obelisk and then the Sharfrichter is likely best for your first runthrough. Make sure to search all of the areas thoroughly, as you'll need to fight an optional boss to get either the Trinity Greatsword or the Scharfrichter. (If you want, I can tell you the areas, though I'm trying to keep things spoiler-free.)

And two-handing greatswords is a perfectly viable strategy. Though there are some frustrating lategame enemies with high slash defense, so investing in a backup greathammer will save you some grief.

[No One]

If it looks like the weapon is more powerful once you've transmuted it, it is.

With greatswords there's no real gotchas until the very end of the game/NG+. The Chitin Obelisk and Shrouded Bulwarks have a special that helps with most later and harder enemies at the cost of being less effective on earlier ones. I suppose there's this gotcha: if you go for the jaws of death you can't transmute back out of them, as greatscissors can't be transmuted into greatswords.

Remember elemental weapon buffs scale of base damage and are a reasonable way of mitigating high slash defence, so there's that consideration.

Scaling isn't as weirdly aggressive by letter in S&S as in DS. In DS it's something like A = 100-50%, B = 50-25%, C = 25-12% etc. In S&S the S-scaling Kureimoa is actually less powerful than the D-scaling Seawolf Cutlass. It gains more power per strenght point, but only by 43%, instead of like 1000%. By my calculation it finally breaks even at 78 strength. (Some assumptions made.)

Originally posted by clcman:

investing in a backup greathammer will save you some grief.

Althought it feels weird to get rank 4/5 greatswords and end up using your rank 1 greathammer almost all the time. Sadly there's a clear optimum build which is greathammers with greatswords for backup, rather than the reverse. (Axes are for making your life more difficult.)