Earliest point in game I can get a claymore or greatsword?

[Patch]

Need big Bunga wunga stick. Where get big stick?

[JellyPuff]

Zero bosses: Buy the Fragrant Branch of Yore from Merchant Hag Melentia, un-petrify Rosabeth and then go through Shaded Woods to Head of Vengarl and buy either of those weapons from him.

You can get the Greatsword through a more soul-efficient way, if you don't have the souls for the fragrant branch and the weapons but it requires you to kill one boss; Go through Heide's Tower, kill Dragonrider and then just go loot it at No Man's Wharf nearby Gavlaan.

[Patch]

Originally posted by JellyPuff:

Zero bosses: Buy the Fragrant Branch of Yore from Merchant Hag Melentia, un-petrify Rosabeth and then go through Shaded Woods to Head of Vengarl and buy either of those weapons from him.

You can get the Greatsword through a more soul-efficient way, if you don't have the souls for the fragrant branch and the weapons but it requires you to kill one boss; Go through Heide's Tower, kill Dragonrider and then just go loot it at No Man's Wharf nearby Gavlaan.

There's a big sword near Gavlaan? I don't remember finding one there?

[Yzal]

Originally posted by Patch:

Originally posted by JellyPuff:

Zero bosses: Buy the Fragrant Branch of Yore from Merchant Hag Melentia, un-petrify Rosabeth and then go through Shaded Woods to Head of Vengarl and buy either of those weapons from him.

You can get the Greatsword through a more soul-efficient way, if you don't have the souls for the fragrant branch and the weapons but it requires you to kill one boss; Go through Heide's Tower, kill Dragonrider and then just go loot it at No Man's Wharf nearby Gavlaan.

There's a big sword near Gavlaan? I don't remember finding one there?

In the building with the big guys that hate lights, second floor there's 2 chests; one of them has the ultra greatsword that's just called "greatsword".

If you're talking about normal greatswords i think the first one you can get is the bastard sword that's on the Forest of the Fallen Giants area were armorer Dennis invades you, on the roof with all the ironclad soldiers. You'll need the key dropped by the last giant but you should be able to just YOLO run for it.

[Willheart]

The Drangleic Greatsword is also pretty easy to get and has good base damage - after Last Giant and The Pursuer (boss edition), it's down a hole after the Pursuer arena alongside the Drangleic set.

Both Drangleic and Bastard sword lack the two-handed thrust of the Claymore though, so, you know, literally unusable for some people.

Otherwise yeah:

Originally posted by Lazy Dog:

In the building with the big guys that hate lights, second floor there's 2 chests; one of them has the ultra greatsword that's just called "greatsword".

just hug the left until you get to the cliff, there's a stone building with two floors infested with those things.

Originally posted by Patch:

There's a big sword near Gavlaan? I don't remember finding one there?

Not anymore. In the original Dark Souls 2, Gavlan used to be up there with the Greatsword chest, in Scholar he's moved further in to a safer area.

[Patch]

I know in DS3 a lot of enemies were weak to fire. I found the greatsword. Is there a reccomended infusion I should give it?

[Willheart]

Originally posted by Patch:

I know in DS3 a lot of enemies were weak to fire. I found the greatsword. Is there a reccomended infusion I should give it?

Lightning or Dark usually, Magic is okay but lots of enemies are resistant to Fire (which also makes pyromancies a bit poo in PvE unfortunately).

[JellyPuff]

Originally posted by Patch:

I know in DS3 a lot of enemies were weak to fire. I found the greatsword. Is there a reccomended infusion I should give it?

Nothing in DS2 really is "weak" to any element (there are phys-type weaknesses, mostly strike-damage, though). Everything, including you, has at least 10% elemental damage reduction. But since most enemies only have 10% to 30% lighting or dark resistance, it makes those the best candidates for infusions.
How well a weapon infuses also matters and while the Greatsword does infuse well, it also loses a chunk of it's strong STR scaling. "Ring of Blades" scaling is also halved with elemental infusions. At 50 STR with RoB, you'd trade phys damage with dark or lightning damage almost 1 to 1, so i'd just keep it uninfused for consistency.

It would look different, if you'd ever go the FTH/INT route and use spellbuffs, like Dark Weapon or Sunlight Blade. Spellbuffs scale with the buffed weapon's total base damage (without scaling), which is higher for the Greatsword with elemental infusions. But at that point, you may wanna consider the other Berserk-reference weapon[darksouls2.wikidot.com].

[Patch]

Originally posted by JellyPuff:

Originally posted by Patch:

I know in DS3 a lot of enemies were weak to fire. I found the greatsword. Is there a reccomended infusion I should give it?

Nothing in DS2 really is "weak" to any element (there are phys-type weaknesses, mostly strike-damage, though). Everything, including you, has at least 10% elemental damage reduction. But since most enemies only have 10% to 30% lighting or dark resistance, it makes those the best candidates for infusions.
How well a weapon infuses also matters and while the Greatsword does infuse well, it also loses a chunk of it's strong STR scaling. "Ring of Blades" scaling is also halved with elemental infusions. At 50 STR with RoB, you'd trade phys damage with dark or lightning damage almost 1 to 1, so i'd just keep it uninfused for consistency.

It would look different, if you'd ever go the FTH/INT route and use spellbuffs, like Dark Weapon or Sunlight Blade. Spellbuffs scale with the buffed weapon's total base damage (without scaling), which is higher for the Greatsword with elemental infusions. But at that point, you may wanna consider the other Berserk-reference weapon[darksouls2.wikidot.com].

I went with the claymore and infused lightning. Would it be better if I took out the bolt gem then?

[JellyPuff]

Originally posted by Patch:

I went with the claymore and infused lightning. Would it be better if I took out the bolt gem then?

That one's worth keeping infused, but there'd be little point in leveling STR/DEX beyond it's min requirements. You can keep STR/DEX at 20/13 and focus on increasing your HP, stamina or Agility instead. Also, this ring[darksouls2.wikidot.com] is basically +50 free damage, even on infused weapons and the downside of not being able to level VIT much to get it's benefit is very insignificant.