Is there any point to equipping left handed weapons?

[Sammich]

So yeah based on what I've seen, "most" of them has that dumb feature of blocking with L1 and L2 is a normal attack. Not only is it a normal attack, it's literally just a normal attack meaning no running attack or roll attack can happen with it based on what I've been trying. If I'm wrong here please do correct me and I pray that I'm wrong since that is just such a huge step back. It doesn't seem to combo well with your right hand either, it has a tiny delay which ultimately makes the left hand and right hand combo slower. Anyone care to share some insight regarding this? Because right now I absolutely see no reasons to keep most weapons on the left hand.

And yes I'm aware there are some parry weapons you can keep on the left hand but that's as far as the usefulness goes from what I've seen.

[Facu]

Oh sweety....FASHION! That´s the only reason you need.

[Cooman]

big sword right hand, fast sword left. mix up attacks. have fun . fashion

[Insane Scientist]

Pretty much what occo said. It's not uncommon for people to have a greatsword in right hand and rapier in the left. But beyond stuff like that there isn't really much use.

[Sammich]

Originally posted by Mad Scientist:

Pretty much what occo said. It's not uncommon for people to have a greatsword in right hand and rapier in the left. But beyond stuff like that there isn't really much use.

Yeah I thought about that as well but again I noticed that there is a slight delay before the left hand attacks after the right hand, vice versa. The delay actually is more of an animation reset, kinda like how if you pressed R1 and then R2.

Then I came to the conclusion that it's actually better/more practical to just 2h the great weapons and just tap right on the D-Pad to switch to your faster weapon(which is on your right hand second slot) with a shield on your left hand or just 2h it as well if you're using something like a katana.

[Cooman]

Originally posted by A cat goes meow:

Originally posted by Mad Scientist:

Pretty much what occo said. It's not uncommon for people to have a greatsword in right hand and rapier in the left. But beyond stuff like that there isn't really much use.

Yeah I thought about that as well but again I noticed that there is a slight delay before the left hand attacks after the right hand, vice versa. The delay actually is more of an animation reset, kinda like how if you pressed R1 and then R2.

Then I came to the conclusion that it's actually better/more practical to just 2h the great weapons and just tap right on the D-Pad to switch to your faster weapon(which is on your right hand second slot) with a shield on your left hand or just 2h it as well if you're using something like a katana.

it's more about mind games.

take. fume + Estoc.

you don't switch r1-l2 r1 l2 etc. you would say, r1 with the fume, make your opponent roll into you then as their close poke with the Estoc superior tracking and speed.

or if they come in for a running attack use your hyper armor to stagger them, then a quick poke .

[Sammich]

Originally posted by ocoo:

Originally posted by A cat goes meow:

Yeah I thought about that as well but again I noticed that there is a slight delay before the left hand attacks after the right hand, vice versa. The delay actually is more of an animation reset, kinda like how if you pressed R1 and then R2.

Then I came to the conclusion that it's actually better/more practical to just 2h the great weapons and just tap right on the D-Pad to switch to your faster weapon(which is on your right hand second slot) with a shield on your left hand or just 2h it as well if you're using something like a katana.

it's more about mind games.

take. fume + Estoc.

you don't switch r1-l2 r1 l2 etc. you would say, r1 with the fume, make your opponent roll into you then as their close poke with the Estoc superior tracking and speed.

or if they come in for a running attack use your hyper armor to stagger them, then a quick poke .

Well I guess that could play into it some use of it but from the looks of it, it doesn't have much going for it in DS3 if that's mainly it. There are tons of ways to play mind games so it's not something that only this setup can do. Though I acknowledge that this is one way to have a left handed weapon.

[Vinyltavia]

have you ever been beaten to death by a man with a shield?
I can always show you the humiliation of it.
(and no you can't parry it.)

[Sammich]

Originally posted by Vinyltavia:

have you ever been beaten to death by a man with a shield?
I can always show you the humiliation of it.
(and no you can't parry it.)

I love fighting those guys in DS2, haven't seen much in DS3. DS3 had some mean builds with great magic shield which kinda deflects all blows that aren't great/ultra weapons. They also block and attack at the same time. I always carried a Shotel/Darkdrift with me though so it wasn't too much of a problem. Estoc/Spider's Silk also did them in pretty good as well.

The main thing to keep in mind that most inexperienced players kept doing was attacking when the shield was attacking and losing trades. What they don't realize is that the shield has almost no range and quite slow so if you stay your distance with something that can pierce the shield, you're generally able to maintain safety. Everything has a weakness and shields particularly lack in range and speed but make up for it in defense and trades.

[Hunubul]

Reasons to equip weapons in left hand:
1) some of them can parry
2) You can attack with them, so having a big weapon in right and a fast weapon in left means you can attack fast and slow depending on what's better for you
3) You can 2hand any of those weapons, meaning that you can get 2 complete weapon movesets easily with just a press or a hold of a button. Weapon arts matter too, not just the basic moveset.

Example: Big weapon in right hand, and caestus in left. When I don't want to get parried I 2hand the big weapon, but when I meet an R1 spammer I 2hand the caestus and with preservance I spam them to death myself. It's one thing that they don't expect me to do that, but it's effective even if they know it's coming.


Also it's completely dependant of playstyle. Maybe left handed weapons aren't for you. It's supposed to be offhand, mainly catalyst or shield, so it's ok to use those instead of a weapon..

[Sammich]

Originally posted by Ponion:

Reasons to equip weapons in left hand:
1) some of them can parry
2) You can attack with them, so having a big weapon in right and a fast weapon in left means you can attack fast and slow depending on what's better for you
3) You can 2hand any of those weapons, meaning that you can get 2 complete weapon movesets easily with just a press or a hold of a button. Weapon arts matter too, not just the basic moveset.

Example: Big weapon in right hand, and caestus in left. When I don't want to get parried I 2hand the big weapon, but when I meet an R1 spammer I 2hand the caestus and with preservance I spam them to death myself. It's one thing that they don't expect me to do that, but it's effective even if they know it's coming.


Also it's completely dependant of playstyle. Maybe left handed weapons aren't for you. It's supposed to be offhand, mainly catalyst or shield, so it's ok to use those instead of a weapon..

Yeah the part where "it's suppose to be an offhand" was what I was afraid of. Guess they reverteed back to DS1 on this mechanic.

[Hunubul]

Originally posted by A cat goes meow:

Yeah the part where "it's suppose to be an offhand" was what I was afraid of. Guess they reverteed back to DS1 on this mechanic.

Basically.. But that didn't mean it can't be done. People in DS1 still had weapons in left hand. It required a different playing style, and you had to be better to use it effectively tho. In this game it just gives you more options.

[Phoenix]

When using Lothric Knight Sword, Irithyll straight sword or Chaos Blade I have grass crest shield in my offhand cuz it looks nice and gives stamina. Parrying is still mediocre for me personally and I never use it to block anything either. Panic rolling > tanking. There's nothing wrong with leaving your offhand completely empty if you're not planning on doing anything with it.

There are a couple options I would recommend for offhand:
1) Grass Crest Shield - Increases stamina regen
2) Silver Eagle Kite Shield - With a simple infusion you can use power stance
3) Shield of want - Increases soul gain per kill by 20%
4) Caestus - Hold the keybind to two-hand Caestus to "sheath" your main weapon (fashionsouls)