Which deals more damage? Lightning stake or sunlight spear?

[Vaeldara]

As the title asks which spell deals more damage lightning stake or sunlight spear?

Also which one would be more viable for a faith caster build?

Finally what would be a good suggested weapon for a faith caster. Currently I switch between the dragonslayer's sword spear and a lightning infused lothric warbanner as a main weapon with either a lightning infused broadsword or lothric's holy sword as a side arm. I also use the cleric's sacred chime as a casting tool but is there one with a higher possible spell buff?

Currently I am soul level 197.

[Alariel]

The highest spell buff you can get with Yorska's chime , when you have 50 faith or more.
Sunlight Spear deals bonus damage in close range.

[Plink]

spear will stronger if u use it in close range, but stake has AOE damage

[Alice]

Funnily enough, as long as you only have 1 tareget to worry about, and they're in stake range, sunlight spear does more damage, but if you're fighting multiple opponents, stake works great.

[Vaeldara]

Thanks for all the information. I'll keep it in mind as I play my faith character. I used stake and lightning storm against the decons of the deep and found that to be pretty fun just zapping this horde of evil priests.

[TrueArchery]

Spear has more damage, but imo stake is more viable in PvP due to the pretty wide and lingering hitbox that easily catches rolls around you. And they're both unusable against good or careful players.

I strongly recommend to use a talisman in PvP to use their poise casting. Different talismans have different damage, but also different poise casting. While the saint's talisman is the strongest talisman, its poise is kinda weak so the slightly weaker regular talisman is a better choice. The sunlight talisman has the best poise, but even worse damage and quite frankly its poise is completely overkill and you don't need it 99% of the time. It's really good for non-damaging/-scaling spells like force though.

Lothric's holy sword is pretty mediocre. The broadsword is decent but tbh I'd just replace it with a lothric knight sword, slightly weaker but better moveset + range + crit modifier. The sunlight straight sword is also pretty good if you have high str and dex aswell which I assume you do at that level. It can be buffed and its self buff is nice, too. Stacks with other body buffs, too.
The warbanner is great, its buff also buffs spell damage (as long as you keep it in one hand, twohanding the other hand's gear actually cancels the buff iirc). It's a decent spear so pretty good. I'd keep those two equipped.
And don't sleep on the lothric knight ugs, it deals mad damage.

[Alice]

Originally posted by TrueArchery:

Spear has more damage, but imo stake is more viable in PvP due to the pretty wide and lingering hitbox that easily catches rolls around you. And they're both unusable against good or careful players.

I strongly recommend to use a talisman in PvP to use their poise casting. Different talismans have different damage, but also different poise casting. While the saint's talisman is the strongest talisman, its poise is kinda weak so the slightly weaker regular talisman is a better choice. The sunlight talisman has the best poise, but even worse damage and quite frankly its poise is completely overkill and you don't need it 99% of the time. It's really good for non-damaging/-scaling spells like force though.

Lothric's holy sword is pretty mediocre. The broadsword is decent but tbh I'd just replace it with a lothric knight sword, slightly weaker but better moveset + range + crit modifier. The sunlight straight sword is also pretty good if you have high str and dex aswell which I assume you do at that level. It can be buffed and its self buff is nice, too. Stacks with other body buffs, too.
The warbanner is great, its buff also buffs spell damage (as long as you keep it in one hand, twohanding the other hand's gear actually cancels the buff iirc). It's a decent spear so pretty good. I'd keep those two equipped.
And don't sleep on the lothric knight ugs, it deals mad damage.

Be sure to note that the body buff from the sunlight sword will delete all other body buffs, tod included. Yes, that 100 mana you spent on tears is wasted if you do it before the sword's buff. The SPELL version of the same buff does NOT delete other body buffs however. Also I agree the sunlight talisman is best used when you have force and there are 3 sl 800 phantoms charging you, get near a cliff and use their overconfidence against them to shove them off of a cliff for an instant triple kill.