Defender's Greatsword?

[Sines]

So, how is the Defenders Greatsword? I've heard it's good, but it seems to do WAY less damage than a Lightning Infused Claymore, to the point where I'm not sure if even the buff can make up for the difference.

I wouldn't mind just trying it out, but there's only so much petrified dragonbone and the Defenders Shield is pretty nice for it's high stability for a non-greatshield.

[Maggie]

I guess claymore is +10 and dgs isn't +5, maybe isn't infused too.

[Pyramid Bread]

If you infuse the claymore, your scaling goes to ♥♥♥♥.

Defenders gs still gets full scaling if you leave it uninfused.

Pretty sure counter is the same with both.

[Sines]

According to both the Wikidot and Fextralife Wikis, here's the swords damage stats at max upgrade with lightning infuse...

Claymore: 203 / 203 (C/D/B)
Defender's Greatsword: 192/115 (C/E/B)

Less base damage and similar stat scaling. But that's a huge damage difference even if the Claymore has a low B scaling and the DG has a high B scaling.

[Pyramid Bread]

If you leave the defenders gs uninfused, you will get more physical AR and a bit less ightning AR compared to the lightning claymore.

Both the infused claymore and non-infused defenders gs will have similar total AR

[TrueArchery]

I bet the Defender's gets like double the scaling.

Don't trust the letters after you infuse a pure physical weapon with an element. The physical scaling is easily halved even though you've still a C.
A Lightning Defender's gets a huge Lightning-scaling, I can look it up in a second on my PvE dude who has 50+ Faith. Plus its focusing on the elemental side of damage and isn't as evenly splitted as the Claymore, isn't as much an issue as in DkS1, but should be noted. (edit actually it isn't, but whatever)

Edit: Hilarious scaling difference. I've a Fire Claymore, not a Lightning, but shouldn't matter much - stats are 50 Str, 40 Dex, 44 Int and 50 Fth.
Fire Claymore +10 (203+42 and 203+48) - 496 AR
Lightning Defender's +5 (192+52 and 115+147) - 513 AR

With Fire/Lightning Clutch Rings: 203+63 Fire for the Clay, 115+183 Lightning for Def.
Slap on buff (1.3x multiplied iirc): 266*1.3=346, 298*1.3=387 (both rounded)

About 40 AR difference. Defender's has like 5 points more physical AR. Probably a Lightning Claymore would have a couple of points less AR as this is a Fire one which scales with both and I'm 34 points over the softcap for Fire.

[Sareth]

Alright, numbers time:
My character (no damage rings)
47 STR
47 DEX
51 FAITH

Lighting Claymore - Total AR: 494 (203 + 42 / 203 + 46)
Lightnind Defender GS - Total AR: 512 (192 + 58 / 115 + 147)
Defender GS - Total AR: 458 (didn't bother to uninfuse it)

Thing is, the Claymore can be buffed with spells and has (imo) the more flexible moveset.
The Defender GS might have more total AR, but it can only be buffed using the alt-parry, meaning a durability loss. That might not be a downside for PvP, as your durability resets regularly. In PvE however that'd be the scale tipper for me.

[Maggie]

Claymore looks rusty, meh.