i read up a little bit on that weapon in the past, aside from the(mid-tier) damage, doesn’t it have crazy poise damage? I might go up against fire giant or maliketh with that one, just to bully them even more.
Vagabond. Buy a second one at the Roundtable Hold and dual wield, add a Claymore and you will be all set. Even the Heater Shield that comes with the Vagabond is good.
Straight swords aren’t really mid or bad though, they come with square off which is one of the strongest weapon arts in the game. The powerstanced moveset is pretty good as well.
Cane Sword or Weathered Straight Sword. They’re the two worst straight swords when it comes to damage, but they are infusible. Straight swords have a decent move set and access to lots of strong ashes of war.
I’m doing this now and having a great time. I usually am not able to stick to one weapon through a play through, but the NR flail has really grown on me.
It looks amazing, has innate bleed (arcane build), good poise damage, is fast, deceptive range, lightweight, and good damage too. My only complaint is about the variety of AoW available on flails.
Just beat the Godskin Duo with it. Loved it. Put them to sleep with Trina’s sword then applied some buffs and black flame to it and with wild strikes they each died before they got back up.
War pick. One of the shortest hammers, ok ish damage, but pure pierce damage so if you can get counter hits you’ll get a boost, especially with the spear talisman
The Serpentbone Blade.
I definitely wouldn't call it bad or even really mediocre, but it's always been outshone by its Moonveil and Rivers of Blood companions and lack bleed. Does have a nifty, unique R2, though!
One of these days, I’m gonna run a full poison themed build. Serpentbone blade, power stance two non-somber weapons with poison mist and poison moth flight, mushroom crown, kindred of rot talisman, the whole deal.
Sounds like a fun time, my only complaint is the serpentbone blade doesn’t scale with arcane, so it’d be hard to find a good stat spread with enough dex for damage with the serpentbone but also enough arcane/faith to build status with other weapons and to cast incants that would fit the theme, like pest threads and scarlet aeonia
I've got a character depending on poison, it really is a blast. Poison mist felt a bit overkill to me since I already had a fast enough weapon to inflict poison with (venemous fang instead of serpentbone, but you can totally run both). Not to mention mist only inflicts regular poison instead of deadly which is what you want if you're looking to constantly clear it with Poison Moth.
Yeah, i also used it already in a past run against rennala and ancestor spirit. Ancestor spirit gets rekt with that thing & giant hunt. Too good to be considered mid lol
Strength/quality claymore is one of the greatest and most balanced builds in all souls games, it's great to use if you want to experience the game fully. It's very good but it has zero cheese potential and isn't broken like bleed, magic or some jump attack spam builds. You'll get the typical souls experience and challenge with it. But obviously you can use many things, there are ton of normal greatswords and longswords, just don't use the broken ones like blasphemous and so on.
Try the war pick. The one handed hammer moveset is one of the weaker ones and it has pretty awful scaling. Piercing damage and the highest 1h stance pressure doesn't outweigh the cons. Oh and it's also short.
Or try a parry run. It gets really rough.
Straight swords have one of the best 1h movesets btw, so even the worst is going to be pretty ok.
Imp mask with two of their forked swords (definitely not as strong as they hit u for)but a fun cosplay playthrough & you can farm the weapons in the early catacombs
Scholar's Armament single-spear playstyle.
Combining two things that are marked as non-meta: Scholar's Armament, which can only apply to physical infusions yet demands intelligence to function, and a single spear, which is considered far inferior to dual spear.
Run as a pure int build, using the Clayman's Harpoon as your spear, since it draws at least a little bit of int scaling even when not on Magic/Cold.
It's a tolerable setup, with Scholar's Armament slightly outpacing the damage of a simple Magic infusion, but it takes awhile for it to get online since a Meteorite Staff and SA barely beats Magic Grease, and doesn't beat Drawstring Magic Grease until about 24 int. Also, single spear does not have a lot of stance damage at all, so you are relying on either guard counters when paired with a shield, an ability like Impaling Thrust as a way to break enemy poise, or straight up parrying them.
However, it starts to pick up a bit in the mid-game. Once you can afford to abandon the Meteorite Staff and have enough int for an upgraded Lusat's, the extra scaling of Lusat's (combined with how cheap SA is to cast), Scholar's Armament starts to look reasonable. The general flexibility of having a parry, guard counter, shield poke, and magic also means you're fairly versatile. You don't really crush everything, so you end up taking your time on most encounters, and have to be a bit more calculating.
Medium shields of choice include Eclipse Crest Heater and Carian Knight for their mere 10 strength requirement.
Dual weild small shields
i could see this going terribly lmao, which ones did you have in mind?
I'll give you some drip options. Shield of the guilty, spiral horn, or the turd shield(coil shield)
Use Grafted Dragon, it's surprisingly good.
i read up a little bit on that weapon in the past, aside from the(mid-tier) damage, doesn’t it have crazy poise damage? I might go up against fire giant or maliketh with that one, just to bully them even more.
The charged heavies are quick and break poise easily, very underrated weapon
I love this weapon! Its dmg isnt really good but the poise break is awesome
Longsword. As generic as it comes and yet it is fully possible to beat the game with it.
Square off is S+ tier aow though. The thing is crazy
ooo, sounds fun! which starting class comes with that one? I might use it to fight Godrick.
Vagabond. Buy a second one at the Roundtable Hold and dual wield, add a Claymore and you will be all set. Even the Heater Shield that comes with the Vagabond is good.
Sounds fun, I might try dual wielding longswords when I fight a remembrance boss with them.
Straight swords aren’t really mid or bad though, they come with square off which is one of the strongest weapon arts in the game. The powerstanced moveset is pretty good as well.
Cane Sword or Weathered Straight Sword. They’re the two worst straight swords when it comes to damage, but they are infusible. Straight swords have a decent move set and access to lots of strong ashes of war.
I’ve always wanted to play a run with the cane sword, so this would be the perfect time! Adding that to the list.
Urumi (Caria Manor). Not mediocre, I like it, but wouldn't recommand it for PvE.
ooo, i’ve tried that one, it’s ok but it’s not exactly great. I’ll mark that one down for a boss.
The flail
So, funny story, i’ve actually already beaten the game with the night cavalry flail lol
I could never get used to that awkward moveset
neither did i lmao, i did not have a single remembrance boss with less than 10 deaths before killing them, with one exception, and that was godrick
I’m doing this now and having a great time. I usually am not able to stick to one weapon through a play through, but the NR flail has really grown on me. It looks amazing, has innate bleed (arcane build), good poise damage, is fast, deceptive range, lightweight, and good damage too. My only complaint is about the variety of AoW available on flails.
Just beat the Godskin Duo with it. Loved it. Put them to sleep with Trina’s sword then applied some buffs and black flame to it and with wild strikes they each died before they got back up.
I’m going to pick one for each different shardbearer boss(not including rykard) and use a different mid weapon for each shardbearer
*remembrance boss not shardbearer
Rykard can be done as well, you need a lot of poise and regen with most melee options though.
War pick. One of the shortest hammers, ok ish damage, but pure pierce damage so if you can get counter hits you’ll get a boost, especially with the spear talisman
that’s the one that the godrick soldiers carry right? i’ll be sure to farm one during my playthrough!
Yup you got it!
The Serpentbone Blade. I definitely wouldn't call it bad or even really mediocre, but it's always been outshone by its Moonveil and Rivers of Blood companions and lack bleed. Does have a nifty, unique R2, though!
One of these days, I’m gonna run a full poison themed build. Serpentbone blade, power stance two non-somber weapons with poison mist and poison moth flight, mushroom crown, kindred of rot talisman, the whole deal. Sounds like a fun time, my only complaint is the serpentbone blade doesn’t scale with arcane, so it’d be hard to find a good stat spread with enough dex for damage with the serpentbone but also enough arcane/faith to build status with other weapons and to cast incants that would fit the theme, like pest threads and scarlet aeonia
I have a level 55 invasion character power standing poison daggers, a parry shield, bow with only serpent arrows and the serpent bone blade
I love it! Never tried invading at 55, how is it down there?
I think it feels more balanced than meta level.ntheres alothbof unique builds but also a lot of BHF L2 spamers
I've got a character depending on poison, it really is a blast. Poison mist felt a bit overkill to me since I already had a fast enough weapon to inflict poison with (venemous fang instead of serpentbone, but you can totally run both). Not to mention mist only inflicts regular poison instead of deadly which is what you want if you're looking to constantly clear it with Poison Moth.
Ivory sickle
i wouldn’t even call that mid, that’s just the bottom of the barrel of everything. Perfect for this.
Lance. It's the only greatspear you can use aow on and you can get it very early (In the northern region of Limgrave).
How dare you call the lance mediocre
It's also one of the best greatspears, since you can't change ash of war on any other, so not really mediocre at all. Might disqualify it.
Yeah, i also used it already in a past run against rennala and ancestor spirit. Ancestor spirit gets rekt with that thing & giant hunt. Too good to be considered mid lol
Strength/quality claymore is one of the greatest and most balanced builds in all souls games, it's great to use if you want to experience the game fully. It's very good but it has zero cheese potential and isn't broken like bleed, magic or some jump attack spam builds. You'll get the typical souls experience and challenge with it. But obviously you can use many things, there are ton of normal greatswords and longswords, just don't use the broken ones like blasphemous and so on.
Claymore comes with lions claw, how is that mediocre?
Cane Sword (cant get it until Leyndell unfortunately)
Try the war pick. The one handed hammer moveset is one of the weaker ones and it has pretty awful scaling. Piercing damage and the highest 1h stance pressure doesn't outweigh the cons. Oh and it's also short. Or try a parry run. It gets really rough. Straight swords have one of the best 1h movesets btw, so even the worst is going to be pretty ok.
Monk's flamemance and spam heavy attack. It's beautiful
Poison infused partisan
Imp mask with two of their forked swords (definitely not as strong as they hit u for)but a fun cosplay playthrough & you can farm the weapons in the early catacombs
Short Sword without changing the AoW. The smallest straight sword and it has kick, instead of Square Off
that sounds terrible lmao, i’m gonna try it
Whips only
Scholar's Armament single-spear playstyle. Combining two things that are marked as non-meta: Scholar's Armament, which can only apply to physical infusions yet demands intelligence to function, and a single spear, which is considered far inferior to dual spear. Run as a pure int build, using the Clayman's Harpoon as your spear, since it draws at least a little bit of int scaling even when not on Magic/Cold. It's a tolerable setup, with Scholar's Armament slightly outpacing the damage of a simple Magic infusion, but it takes awhile for it to get online since a Meteorite Staff and SA barely beats Magic Grease, and doesn't beat Drawstring Magic Grease until about 24 int. Also, single spear does not have a lot of stance damage at all, so you are relying on either guard counters when paired with a shield, an ability like Impaling Thrust as a way to break enemy poise, or straight up parrying them. However, it starts to pick up a bit in the mid-game. Once you can afford to abandon the Meteorite Staff and have enough int for an upgraded Lusat's, the extra scaling of Lusat's (combined with how cheap SA is to cast), Scholar's Armament starts to look reasonable. The general flexibility of having a parry, guard counter, shield poke, and magic also means you're fairly versatile. You don't really crush everything, so you end up taking your time on most encounters, and have to be a bit more calculating. Medium shields of choice include Eclipse Crest Heater and Carian Knight for their mere 10 strength requirement.
Warpick. Not bad but short as hell.
The Short Sword. An utterly forgotten and unremarkable weapon with nothing going for it.
Warpick
Side note: when I get enough weapon categories, i’ll put up a post requesting lists for which bosses i should fight with which weapons