Weak weapons?

[The_Squarecrow]

I beat the game yesterday and it kind of struck me that I didn't use the side weapons as much as I thought. I never found them to be better than the whip, even while used as an Arcane counter. Are you supposed to use different weapons against different mobs? Are you supposed to just level one up really high and drop the rest?

What's your experience on that level?

[It´sAllAimAssist]

I used the whip alot. Like when I needed the extra range or against multiple enemies because I found it easer to zone them with.

I also used the fire..thingies. Maybe it was because I upgraded them a bit more than most other things as well but the arcane counter and wrath skills on them pretty good to use and also the speed on their attack allowed me to hit higher dps in some cases than the whip.

Once I got it I also upgraded and used the ice sword(s) alot. good dps and great wrath skill , I finished the game on challenging diff and I did most bosses w/o using many if any consumables other than the free heals and towards the late game the wrath skill really helped since it lets you mess upp a dodge or tank some enemy attacks and just dps through them instead.

I think it doesn´t matter much which weapon you use. Just upgrade and use whatever you think is fun to look at.
Also I think the ice swords arcane counter freeze messes up abraxas. at least for me he got stuck in a loop and tried to do the same telegraphed attack over and over and he just got countered over and over.

when I replay the game on apocalypse I will focus on upgrading the whip and spear and hammer instead. Even if I didn´t like the whirlwinds much on bosses because often then didn´t even go to the boss and dps and sometimes they just got in the way and I got killed because I couldn´t see what the boss was doing.

[ZexxCrine]

I had a very balanced build so that will reflect what I say here.

The whip is far and away the best weapon in the game for general use. its easier to upgrade given that you always have it and it can actuall combo enemies unlike other weapons. there are a few enemies in the game that like to block or will throw out reactive attacks, but all of that is negated by using the X wait XXX string. most of the game for me was just X wait XXX Flipsaw over and over. however the other weapons are not useless they are just niche.

first and foremost the fire weapon is the best secondary in the game bar none. near instant arcane counter with a DOT and its arcane counter is BY FAR the hardest hitting one in the game. my stats were about even when I beat the game around level 50 ish but my arcane was 2-3 points below my attack stat. with that said my basic whip hits were hitting for 240 ish and scaled up during the combo and my whips arcane counter was hitting for 500 and some change. my fire weapon at +9 was hitting for a whoping 700 plus the dot of 6 per second. the wrath ability hit for 37 damage a tick while close. this made the fire ability the best wrath ability in the game for me. you wait for the enemy to attack and you go invincible during the attack with your wrath ability and do massive damage. people say that the hammer has the strongest arcane counter, but my hammer was +9 and it was hitting for around 500.

the hammer and spear are only good for specific niches. the Hammer is god tier against things that block. no strategy necisary juts YYY dash YYY dash YYY until they die. the air charge attack is really good for dealing with the adds that the guys with the horn and sheild spawn in. other than that I didnt use the hammer.

The spear was even more niche. I got some good use out of it when I first got it though due to the order I tackled the game in. I beat sloth after wrath(1st encounter) and I got the lightning from him. this meant that when I went after averice next I used the unique arcane counter of the spear to counter skeleton bowmen and averice children. I also used its air charge in rooms that had a bunch of skeletons because it hits everything in a large area and sends chain lightning around which made it my go to weapon if surounded by fodder.

I can't speak for the sword. I got it so late in the game that I didn't even consider leveling it up.

[TangSuijin]

I used the spear. It allowed me a range attack with a perfect dodge. How can I not like it?!

[Hilli]

I haven't experience with the hammer and sword now , but the fire chain and the lightning spear are very strong on a high arcane level. The chain should be combine with runes to generate rage for the longest possible duration to be on fire. The lightnigh spear deals very high counter dmg with perfect dodging your able to one - two hit nearly every enemy. I had 40 arcane and dealt up to 1500 dmg per counter hit.

[Steve]

(1) It seems to me different mobs are weak/strong to different elements, especially the arcane counter. The big one I noticed was the Angel Commander mini boss; weak v.s. lightning compared to fire. Maybe that was just different counter damages, but I didn't recall the lightning counter doing quite so much on others.

(2) I primarily used fire for the dot, but lightning was useful for the ranged counter (spear throw) and the arcane attack from its charge move causes a lightning chain among close enemies v.s. a DoT from fire. Useful in areas with lots of mobs.

(3) I didn't like the hammer a lot as it was slow, but it does HUGE damage. Sword was so late in game i didn't bothre with it, but it seems to do a lot of damage, and the slow-down of tough enemies helps.

[Vik(parantapVikram)]

Originally posted by ZexxCrine:

I had a very balanced build so that will reflect what I say here.

The whip is far and away the best weapon in the game for general use. its easier to upgrade given that you always have it and it can actuall combo enemies unlike other weapons. there are a few enemies in the game that like to block or will throw out reactive attacks, but all of that is negated by using the X wait XXX string. most of the game for me was just X wait XXX Flipsaw over and over. however the other weapons are not useless they are just niche.

first and foremost the fire weapon is the best secondary in the game bar none. near instant arcane counter with a DOT and its arcane counter is BY FAR the hardest hitting one in the game. my stats were about even when I beat the game around level 50 ish but my arcane was 2-3 points below my attack stat. with that said my basic whip hits were hitting for 240 ish and scaled up during the combo and my whips arcane counter was hitting for 500 and some change. my fire weapon at +9 was hitting for a whoping 700 plus the dot of 6 per second. the wrath ability hit for 37 damage a tick while close. this made the fire ability the best wrath ability in the game for me. you wait for the enemy to attack and you go invincible during the attack with your wrath ability and do massive damage. people say that the hammer has the strongest arcane counter, but my hammer was +9 and it was hitting for around 500.

the hammer and spear are only good for specific niches. the Hammer is god tier against things that block. no strategy necisary juts YYY dash YYY dash YYY until they die. the air charge attack is really good for dealing with the adds that the guys with the horn and sheild spawn in. other than that I didnt use the hammer.

The spear was even more niche. I got some good use out of it when I first got it though due to the order I tackled the game in. I beat sloth after wrath(1st encounter) and I got the lightning from him. this meant that when I went after averice next I used the unique arcane counter of the spear to counter skeleton bowmen and averice children. I also used its air charge in rooms that had a bunch of skeletons because it hits everything in a large area and sends chain lightning around which made it my go to weapon if surounded by fodder.

I can't speak for the sword. I got it so late in the game that I didn't even consider leveling it up.

Hey what is this DOT you are talking about ? Can someone explain. I picked this game to play

[nate.leader13]

i actually ended up using the key sword you pick up off the ground. i decided not to place it on the status and had a good time using it inside of the whip! ;)

[InconspicuousBlackVan]

Played multiple times on Reckoning difficulty.

Whip for general use. Good against single targets with the perma CC combo, good against crowds with the spinning attack. Decent damage and very safe.

Fire for DPS - nothing can come even close. You can play it safe with the mentioned whip combo (attack - pause - attack attack attack) and perma CC individual enemies to death but it takes a lot longer than a skilled use of the fire chains. Extremely quick arcane counter and massive damage. Also the best rage ability by far (big damage just by standing near enemies). Melts everything, including bosses.

Lightning spear - great to get rid of inaccessible ranged enemies, awesome counter and I used it as my dedicated life leech weapon to heal whenever I was missing health due to the lightning tendrils being able to hit multiple enemies (= more healing). The moment I got full health again, back to fire.

Force hammer - barely used it. Found it way too slow and the damage for being so slow was rather mediocre, especially compared to fire. Definitely my least used weapon. If it hit like 30% harder, then maybe I'd have used it. Mostly served as an enhancement holder for the passive bonuses.

Stasis sword - modded with the dedicated enhancement from the DLC (increases stasis duration) and spamming the perfectly timed right click attacks over and over can lock out most enemies completely. Also useful when surrounded as the secondary attack makes the swords whirl around you. Occasionally used it to spice it up and can be used as an alternative to the whip for single targets. Much more difficult to perform though. One missed timing on the secondary attack can mean a received hit.

I only used the vanilla variants of the weapons. The ones from the DLC didn't amaze me.

[A.C.Guernica]

Originally posted by InconspicuousBlackVan:

Played multiple times on Reckoning difficulty.

Whip for general use. Good against single targets with the perma CC combo, good against crowds with the spinning attack. Decent damage and very safe.

Fire for DPS - nothing can come even close. You can play it safe with the mentioned whip combo (attack - pause - attack attack attack) and perma CC individual enemies to death but it takes a lot longer than a skilled use of the fire chains. Extremely quick arcane counter and massive damage. Also the best rage ability by far (big damage just by standing near enemies). Melts everything, including bosses.

Lightning spear - great to get rid of inaccessible ranged enemies, awesome counter and I used it as my dedicated life leech weapon to heal whenever I was missing health due to the lightning tendrils being able to hit multiple enemies (= more healing). The moment I got full health again, back to fire.

Force hammer - barely used it. Found it way too slow and the damage for being so slow was rather mediocre, especially compared to fire. Definitely my least used weapon. If it hit like 30% harder, then maybe I'd have used it. Mostly served as an enhancement holder for the passive bonuses.

Stasis sword - modded with the dedicated enhancement from the DLC (increases stasis duration) and spamming the perfectly timed right click attacks over and over can lock out most enemies completely. Also useful when surrounded as the secondary attack makes the swords whirl around you. Occasionally used it to spice it up and can be used as an alternative to the whip for single targets. Much more difficult to perform though. One missed timing on the secondary attack can mean a received hit.

I only used the vanilla variants of the weapons. The ones from the DLC didn't amaze me.

Yeah, I couldn't believe how lackluster the DLC variants were.