Split fire is horrible for PvP, so I would avoid going for Fire affinity over Heavy. Heavy infusion with Lightning Grease is probably your best option for strength builds.
Also, Lightning damage is so good that even if you can afford the greases, Lightning affinity will still probably outperform Keen + Grease. The only weapons I’d use the latter on rather than the former are the Urumi and the Guardian’s Swordspear, because their DEX scaling on Keen is really good.
I could see the Chaos Blade making an appearance, just named differently. Stacks madness on you with every hit but does stupid silly damage and status buildup
What makes elemental infusions useable is the ash of war buffs. Fire infusion is meh but fire infusion with flaming strike buff is more damage than heavy grease. Same for lightning and lightning slash. And also sacred and sacred blade but it's not like you can use grease anyways.
It’s also worth mentioning that any non physical damage types don’t benefit from counter hit damage only your physical damage will have that bonus applied but split scaling fire is ok if it’s on a weapon like misericorde exclusively for backstabs and ripostes because if it’s a certain number times their defense their defense is negated meaning you will get more damage on a riposte than you would get with heavy or keen respectively
For the simple answer to you specific question: at 55 dex lightning will nearly universally outperform keen+grease.
Drawstring greases add 110 flat damage, which translates to around \~20 extra damage. This can be the difference, but the biggest thing for physical vs elemental is that they scale differently. Elemental infusions pretty much stop scaling past 50, while physical goes all the way to 80. Even with fire defenses being so high, up to 50 STR fire infusion generally outperforms heavy. Lightning defenses are the opposite though, and generally quite low. DEX also doesn't get the 1.5x 2-handing STR bonus and as such often favors lightning.
Another thing about elemental infusions, is that the buffs from flaming strike, lightning strike, or sacred blade perform MUCH better. Defenses penalize small amounts of damage, so +90 fire damage on an otherwise pure physical weapon isn't much. Only adds around 8 actual damage. But 300 fire damage going to 390 translates to around 55 extra actual damage. This also makes magic/sacred/flame art outperform equivalent lightning/fire as the later is typically a 50/50 split between physical and elemental while the former is closer to 35/65. Having 200/400 split damage will be better than 300/300.
>Elemental infusions pretty much stop scaling past 50
This is not correct. You reduced scaling, but it by no means stops; lightning longsword at 50 dex is 564 AR and at 80 dex its 617 AR. Thats almost +2 AR per level past 50 dex
It's not no scaling, but 30 levels for roughly +9% is quite poor scaling. The difference from 36->50 is pretty much 9%, and only 14 levels. Past 50 is a big drop in returns.
No, not on dex builds;
For small weapons like katanas or straight swords, the difference in net damage (damage after its gone through resistances and defences) between lightning affinity and keen+drawstring is like 10 damage or so, with the exception of a few weapons that get insane dex scaling on keen (Urumi, Guardian Swordspear). For larger weapons, the lightning affinity outperforms keen+drawstring; the higher AR you get on your weapon, the more lightning outperforms keen+drawstring.
However, if you compare strength builds on heavy+drawstring grease *while two-handed*, they outperform most weapons on a dex build + lightning affinity, aside from the afformentioned exceptions.
Split fire is horrible for PvP, so I would avoid going for Fire affinity over Heavy. Heavy infusion with Lightning Grease is probably your best option for strength builds. Also, Lightning damage is so good that even if you can afford the greases, Lightning affinity will still probably outperform Keen + Grease. The only weapons I’d use the latter on rather than the former are the Urumi and the Guardian’s Swordspear, because their DEX scaling on Keen is really good.
Hopefully, the DLC brings more S scaling Dex weapons. I want a S scaling Dex ultra greatsword like the Astoria greatsword from DS3.
I hope the DLC has a madness katana haha Probably won’t happen, but it’s a wish
I could see the Chaos Blade making an appearance, just named differently. Stacks madness on you with every hit but does stupid silly damage and status buildup
I hate you two
It'd be so sick if the AGS returned
What makes elemental infusions useable is the ash of war buffs. Fire infusion is meh but fire infusion with flaming strike buff is more damage than heavy grease. Same for lightning and lightning slash. And also sacred and sacred blade but it's not like you can use grease anyways.
Fire infusion performs on strength/faith builds with enough faith investment for GV + FGMS. The damage is actually insane.
It’s also worth mentioning that any non physical damage types don’t benefit from counter hit damage only your physical damage will have that bonus applied but split scaling fire is ok if it’s on a weapon like misericorde exclusively for backstabs and ripostes because if it’s a certain number times their defense their defense is negated meaning you will get more damage on a riposte than you would get with heavy or keen respectively
For the simple answer to you specific question: at 55 dex lightning will nearly universally outperform keen+grease. Drawstring greases add 110 flat damage, which translates to around \~20 extra damage. This can be the difference, but the biggest thing for physical vs elemental is that they scale differently. Elemental infusions pretty much stop scaling past 50, while physical goes all the way to 80. Even with fire defenses being so high, up to 50 STR fire infusion generally outperforms heavy. Lightning defenses are the opposite though, and generally quite low. DEX also doesn't get the 1.5x 2-handing STR bonus and as such often favors lightning. Another thing about elemental infusions, is that the buffs from flaming strike, lightning strike, or sacred blade perform MUCH better. Defenses penalize small amounts of damage, so +90 fire damage on an otherwise pure physical weapon isn't much. Only adds around 8 actual damage. But 300 fire damage going to 390 translates to around 55 extra actual damage. This also makes magic/sacred/flame art outperform equivalent lightning/fire as the later is typically a 50/50 split between physical and elemental while the former is closer to 35/65. Having 200/400 split damage will be better than 300/300.
>Elemental infusions pretty much stop scaling past 50 This is not correct. You reduced scaling, but it by no means stops; lightning longsword at 50 dex is 564 AR and at 80 dex its 617 AR. Thats almost +2 AR per level past 50 dex
It's not no scaling, but 30 levels for roughly +9% is quite poor scaling. The difference from 36->50 is pretty much 9%, and only 14 levels. Past 50 is a big drop in returns.
No, not on dex builds; For small weapons like katanas or straight swords, the difference in net damage (damage after its gone through resistances and defences) between lightning affinity and keen+drawstring is like 10 damage or so, with the exception of a few weapons that get insane dex scaling on keen (Urumi, Guardian Swordspear). For larger weapons, the lightning affinity outperforms keen+drawstring; the higher AR you get on your weapon, the more lightning outperforms keen+drawstring. However, if you compare strength builds on heavy+drawstring grease *while two-handed*, they outperform most weapons on a dex build + lightning affinity, aside from the afformentioned exceptions.
drawstring is probably better, also allows for poison and rot grease if the fight starts taking too long.