Attribute bonus?

[Big Boss]

Hello fellow unkindled. I have a question regarding the attribute bonus in the game. The weapons have a stat called attribute bonus, having letters like E, C, D and such. But I have no idea what they mean. Can someone explain me their function?

[Itty]

They indicate how effectively the weapon will scale with a given stat, adding AR to your weapon.

[Big Boss]

AR?

[Promestein]

E D C B A S. From worst to best. They affect how much of a bonus you will get from certain attribute.

[Quickshooter]

these attributes scale with weapons, for example
a fast slashing/stabbing weapon will likely scale with dexterity

while a strong weapon will likely scale with axes, maces, and swords

ofc there are some weapons who scale with both
like swords, halberds and the like

if you have no clue what does scaling mean, press the Back button for explanation

[Big Boss]

Are those the "+xy" numbers behind the actual damage?

[Promestein]

Originally posted by Big Boss:

AR?

Attack Rating

[Itty]

Originally posted by Big Boss:

AR?

Attack Rating; Damage.

Originally posted by Big Boss:

Are those the "+xy" numbers behind the actual damage?

Yes.

[Big Boss]

So basically those stats will "borrow" from you character skill level and add given bonus onto the weapon damage?

[AaroNine ☼]

AR = Damage.
Also important note, not all C's are equal, some are better than others. This is true for all letters.
So a sword C Str and C Dex at 20 Str and 20 Dex, might give 20 damage from the Str and 13 from the Dex.
Likewise not all weapons in the same tree that read C scaling will get the same bonus from 20 Str or Dex.

[Big Boss]

So my theory about "borrowing" points from character skill and adding to weapon damage isnt wrong?

[Itty]

Sorta is, it's a percent scaling. (Or it was in previous Souls)

[Mio Rin]

It's called "The weapon AR benefits from the stats it has scaling for".
It's not borrowing, per se, more like you having that stat high makes the weapon perform better.

[dat_potatoe]

Scaling gives you bonus damage based on your stats. The higher your stats and the better the letter, the more bonus damage you recieve. There's four kinds of scaling that weapons benefit from: Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Faith.

Examples:
40 Strength, A Strength Scaling - Tons of bonus damage.
10 Strength, A Strength Scaling - Very little bonus damage.
40 Strength, E Strength Scaling - Very little bonus damage.

From best to worst: S, A, B, C, D, E, - (Minus sign meaning it doesn't recieve any bonus at all).
Very few weapons are capable of S scaling.

So obviously when it comes to building your character what weapon types you want to use will determine what you dump points into.

[Schantzee]

Originally posted by Big Boss:

So my theory about "borrowing" points from character skill and adding to weapon damage isnt wrong?

Everyone is making this extra complicated. Weapons with better strength scaling gain more damage output from a higher strength level. So if a weapon has B in strength and E in dexterity, you would want to use that weapon if you are a strength build character. If you find weapons that scale well with your stats, try it out on a few weak enemies to see if you like the moveset and then you can upgrade it if you end up liking it.

[Pheex]

you can also infuse weapons to make them scale less with one stat but scale better with other stats.

for example you can change a C strength and C dexterity weapon to a B strength D dexterity scaling weapon. so even base dex weapons can, to a certain degree, work well for strength builds.

also all weapons have a base damage and scaling damage.

for example a weapon might be 110 + 79

where the 110 is the base damage and the 79 is the bonus damage from stat scaling.

the former will always stay the same while the latter with go up the better your stats in the scaling range go up.