Weapon Discussion: Lothric War Banner

[Player117]

Let us take a break on discussing RKPGS and discuss the new weapons of the DLC. In this discussion, we'll look into the Lothric War Banner.

Here is my perspective on the weapon after playing it for a while:

Pros
• Fantastic weapon range. On par with the Lothric Knight Long Spear and the RK Spear
  
• Good (physical) damage (412 AR two-hand) in refined. Around 40 AR below than a Refined LK Long Spear in 40/40 when two-handing it, however.
  
• Fantastic weapon art. From several testing and from what people have been discussing, the "Lothric War Banner" has an AR multiplier of around 1.15x of the weapon damage. For an example: Lothric War Banner with the weapon art buff will have around 474 AR (412*1.15). This means that the damage buff will vary depending on the weapons. Good for co-op and boss fights.

Cons
• Suffers the same weaknesses of Spear Class weaponry (cannot "dead-angle" to avoid parries, for an example)
  
• Lack of offensive weapon art; your only attack mixups are only between R1s and R2s which could make it pretty boring to use. (But you know what they say: boring but practical).
  
• Holstering the weapon (aka two-handing another weapon) will make the WA buff disappear. In order to keep the buff going, you'll need to dual-wield it with you preferred weapon; losing the two-handing damage bonus and several movesets in the process.

Standard rules of using a Spear Class weapon are still applied: proper spacing, punish users, Leo Ring, etcetera.

For being a "balanced" weapon, I can say that some of us agree that the main selling point of this weapon is its Weapon Art. Even then, the weapon still performs well in both PvE and PvP.

Things that are likely to be discussed:
- Increase weapon buff multiplier to 1.2x and above?
- Make the Weapon Art more versatile?
- Make the "banner" to be physical and make it glow when performing the WA?

Share your thoughts, fellow undeads.

[Mandrake109]

I like the weapon. Spent time trolling as a spear or against spears with it lots of fun gets me a lot of agro from other players sadly... Also very underused weapon only ever seen one other player using the weapon.

[Player117]

Originally posted by JTL2+3:

I like the weapon. Spent time trolling as a spear or against spears with it lots of fun gets me a lot of agro from other players sadly...

The aggro gets worser if you also play as a cleric support with the Projected Heal and healing miracles. Not only you can buff weapon and spell damage with the banner, you can make your teammates to live long enough. This, of course, would make you a high priority target.

Perhaps that they target you instead of the host for an example is probably due to the War Banner WA buff will be gone when the user is dead.

[Mandrake109]

Originally posted by Player117:

Originally posted by JTL2+3:

I like the weapon. Spent time trolling as a spear or against spears with it lots of fun gets me a lot of agro from other players sadly...

The aggro gets worser if you also play as a cleric support with the Projected Heal and healing miracles. Not only you can buff weapon and spell damage with the banner, you can make your teammates to live long enough. This, of course, would make you a high priority target.

Perhaps that they target you instead of the host for an example is probably due to the War Banner WA buff will be gone when the user is dead.

Most likely. Still some times it does start to feel personal.
Not that the bugs me to much as a summon. My responce to having a boss and myself kill each other at the same time is "close enough".

[Player117]

Originally posted by JTL2+3:

Most likely. Still some times it does start to feel personal.
Not that the bugs me to much as a summon. My responce to having a boss and myself kill each other at the same time is "close enough".

I'm glad that you like the weapon despite the odds against you (meta particularly).
And I agree; this weapon is a bit underated.

[Mandrake109]

Originally posted by Player117:

Originally posted by JTL2+3:

Most likely. Still some times it does start to feel personal.
Not that the bugs me to much as a summon. My responce to having a boss and myself kill each other at the same time is "close enough".

I'm glad that you like the weapon despite the odds against you (meta particularly).
And I agree; this weapon is a bit underated.

The character that is running the weapon is 50 levels over meta still get summoned for both sides of the spear fight. Sort of wish I did not have to wait so long to run with it.