There are no soft caps in ds2

[AUUUUUGH]

Putting stats to 99 gives massive benefits change my mind.

[JellyPuff]

Did you start leveling STR/DEX on S-scaling weapons and reached 70? S-scaling has 2 softcaps; 50 and 80.

Or did you fight an overlevelled guy at BoB arena and are coping?

I need more context to try and change your mind. Or you know, just attempt to re-spec and put some stats to 99 and see for yourself. But beware: The naked, ugly truth might shock you to your bones and are not for the faint of heart.

[AUUUUUGH]

Originally posted by JellyPuff:

Did you start leveling STR/DEX on S-scaling weapons and reached 70? S-scaling has 2 softcaps; 50 and 80.

Or did you fight an overlevelled guy at BoB arena and are coping?

I need more context to try and change your mind. Or you know, just attempt to re-spec and put some stats to 99 and see for yourself. But beware: The naked, ugly truth might shock you to your bones and are not for the faint of heart. :sorryForWhat:

Example: attuments gives you more spells every 20 levels with 94 for most spells giving you the most, 99 on the strongest giving the most

[Crypto Gamer]

Lets look at dexterity albeit other stats are similar.

At 40 dex you have 140 dex bonus so 70% of the total possible.
At 50 dex you have 155 77.5% of the total possible scaling.

That means from 51-99 you get the left over 22.25% dmg scaling which is not much.

Eg.if at 99 dex stats you gain+200 dmg from a STRONG scaling weapon.

Then at 40 dex you gain+140 dmg
At 50 dex 155 dmg.

So 51-99 dex will give an additional 45 dmg and this is very strong scaling dex weapon.

And of course alternative cost of those 51-99 stat point likely could have spent on anything else stat and get more value.

[AUUUUUGH]

Originally posted by Crypto Gamer:

Lets look at dexterity albeit other stats are similar.

At 40 dex you have 140 dex bonus so 70% of the total possible.
At 50 dex you have 155 77.5% of the total possible scaling.

That means from 51-99 you get the left over 22.25% dmg scaling which is not much.

Eg.if at 99 dex stats you gain+200 dmg from a STRONG scaling weapon.

Then at 40 dex you gain+140 dmg
At 50 dex 155 dmg.

So 51-99 dex will give an additional 45 dmg and this is very strong scaling dex weapon.

And of course alternative cost of those 51-99 stat point likely could have spent on anything else stat and get more value.

You need 1.5* the STR or dex requirement for power stance with weapon. So on average every 15 levels in dex and STR allows you to power stance with a new weapon.
For those who don't use power stanceing. It allows you to use another weapon in your offhand. This means your either doubling DPS or damage as you have can have 2 weapons with the same attack rating at the same time

[Crypto Gamer]

Power stancing does not double your dmg or dps each weapon light attack has lower motion modifiers than "1" while you power stancing with very strong stamina cost.

For instance power stanced katana light attack will have 0.9 or 0.79 motion motion modifier depending on right or left hand.

(Usually 1 handed standing R1s have the 1 motion values and rolling attack slightly less than 1 in most souls games.)


So if you hit a power stanced with both katanas it will do 0.9+0.79=1.69 motion modifier.


Two handing often deals more sustained dps than power stancing but it also depends on weapon and play style.

Most two handing R1s have 1.2 motion modifier in almost every souls game.

You can see speedrunners using rapier two handed and not in power stance as that would lower practical dps.


Of course power stance has many uses and in some cases like fist weapons it is likely always better.

Very few weapons need to go beyond the soft cap of 50 in order to power stance.




Regardless usually 50dex,str and 50 point in other stat eg.int,faith,vigor,adp is better than 99 dex for the same stat investment.

Even for dmg you can use 50dex+a weapon buff eg.sunlight blade it will massively outdamage a 99 dex weapon in almost every case.

A 99 dex weapon will slightly weapon outdamage a 50 dex weapon if it has S scaling.


But it is true in every souls game that 99 stat is better than 40,50 stat but the the return for investment is not that good if you go past the"soft cap".



Now Dark souls 2 is more unique like weapon scaling(especially dex) is much weaker than in DS1,3 and calculated differently.(Dark souls 2 uses a different engine than other almsot everything is calculated differently.(

If you infuse a weapon that usually raises "base"dmg often to (140%) but will make stat scaling even weaker even if the "scaling letter" does not change.

Weapon buffs in DS2 deal dmg boost mostly based on the weapons"base damage"so in short infusions often get more benefit from weapon buffs.

Weapon buff infused weapon can often outdps resined dex,str weapon even with less stat investment.

I got carried away by this long post.

You are feel free to play the way you want as long as you have fun.

[Edgarek]

Powerstance does NOT increase your DPS, but rather increase burst damage.
There is very few powerstance combos that actually performs better then singular weapon, but its usually exceptions due to stamina consumption. As an example broken sword+washing pole or pickaxe and Fume UGS.