@@joshaqy they can keep rivers. It's not even the best bleed weapon, so I'm cool with it. Bh step is fine considering that it has to be on a basic weapon
I did probably 90% of my first play through with the Bloodhound’s Fang. Great sword, bloodloss buildup, good range, not too slow, and the special hits, gets out, causes you to disappear, and damage again.
ditto great damage and move set decent speed lol took a bit to realise there was a follow up to the ash of war i thought the backflip its self was awesome but the teleport slash justy does so much damage and huge amount of s, fantasticc weapon oh and bleed on top of it all? like god damn glad i realised early it was special
Yeap. As a Dex/Fai char I got the bloodhound early on and I'm just not finding anything that is better (also due to lack of smithing stones for my other weapons I guess). I have stronger weapons, but they are slower, so bloodhound still maws done enemies faster, especially when bloodloss triggers after a few hits.
Am surprise Gargoyle's Twin Blades and Godskin Peeler aren't here. These are easily the best weps in the game. Am doing 13k+ with just 2 jump attacks of the bleed/frost combo. Edit: I am at Lv 713 with most gear and talismans. That's why I can confidently say this, as I've tested the other weapons on this list on NG+7.
Wing of Astel is one of the best because the skill goes through walls which helps with annoying enemies like imps and you can catch them without them seeing you
found wing of Astel first week in and my god i grave lorded with taunters tongue and got 10 to 1 kd its such a underrated weapon just because of moonveil im glad to see it starting to get some respect on its name. side note if anyone has tried its mace counterpart lmk if its good i suck with the mace moveset
No FP costs on the R2 projectile, and the fact that it can be charged and/or comboed, that alone makes the weapon top tier. Then consider its L2 ash of war that can absolutely melt large bosses or groups of enemies. I only discovered it late in the game but it’s absolutely a powerhouse with my dex/int build! I powerstance it with a cold scavengers curved sword and you have bleed, frost and magic damage all at once! Its pretty insane. I also wanna shout out Bastard Stars, the Astel boss weapon, it’s a pretty awesome magic flail, rocks with a dex/int build as well, and it’s L2 is a cool variation on the Nebula ash of war that is great for crowd control. The combination of striking and magic damage is really strong against a lot of enemies as well
@@joshmay2944 Bastard's Stars having that massive first hit on the ash makes up for its slow startup by doing a shitload of poise damage and raw contact damage, yeah. It's a bit annoying due to the jangling, but it hits like a sack of depleted uranium.
u forgot to mention that the charged attack of wing of astel is cancelable by tapping the roll button, which then turns into kind of a mini bloudfang weapon art type attack. amazing for mixing it up even more in pvp
that mechanic is on most light swords, not sure what makes a sword viable for it because ive noticed not all weapons have it even in the same category.
@@cbiggs3 im not 100% sure about this, but i think all curved swords have it (maybe also the curved-greatswords, but i never used them myself not even in ds3). nonetheless the point i tried to make was that its especially usefull on the wing, because the opponent would be expecting a ranged magic attack
Another really good faith weapon is the Halo Scythe from the Cleanrot Knights. Has good melee range with blood loss and the Ash of War Miquella's Ring of Light (AKA Krillin's Destructo Disc) has good range giving versatility and the damage is really good as well. Been using it a lot and I've progressed quite a bit because of it.
exact same weapon im using, i defeated the boss after margit second try with it, best thing to do is to use summons to distract bosses then spam the rings
Blasphemous Blade is lowkey OP: it has the damage, lifesteal, poise damage, scaling, and everything else you would need on a weapon With some faith buffs, you can literally facetank bosses while you spam the ash Now if it didn't have those creepy red arms
@@hby7768 The ash used to be bugged, now it's fixed and you can heal like a fifth of your hp every time you hit it It's definitely op, people just haven't started to pick it up as much as other weapons
@@luskarian4055 everyone has been using it since 1.0 through 1.3xxx so it never fell off maybe they cycled to the arcane build - for something to be “low key” it means it was never mainstream or most people never knew about it. Your choice of words insinuates that no one knew how powerful it is or how powerful it was - everyone was using this to farm if they didn’t want to dupe. You’re right this weapon gives you anywhere from very little to a chunk of your hp back but i felt like it was doing that since 1.1, i never use it in 1.0 tho.
@@luskarian4055 the main reason it hasn't been picked up I think is beacuse it's weapon art is almost impossible to hit someone in pvp with if they know what's coming so it's just about a pure pve weapon
I think the ruin greatsword deserved to be mention in the list. It AoW has really good range, it wide and hit super hard. Which is great because usually strength weapons have really short range combat and having the option to whoop ass an entire group of enemies from like 100 meters away is just awesome.
@@joshuachurchill2858 yeah it could be that too but he does include it in one of his video about top 5 best strength build weapons, so i'm pretty surprised that he didn't mention it in this video. Also it scaled very minimum with int so you only need 16 for the requirement and pump all in to str since it scaled very good with it (at +10 it has an S with str and barely a D with int). In my opinion it fit really well with a pure strength build
I've recently started using ruin and holy crap this thing wrecks everything lol. I'm a int strength build chilling at level 150 not going higher than that. Put 60 int, 38 strength, 15 dex, 27 end, 43 Vigor, 26 mind. I use the strength talisman+helmet+attributes talisman to boost to get 50 str. Attribute talisman gives me 5 points to vig, dex, strength ,end, I can use all the best str weapons and have a moonveil for backup. Totally love my build
There are so many great options for each stat in this game, I love it. So much variety and diversity of builds. Of course Rivers of Cringe was going to be the top Arcane pick, it's just objectively the best in that category. Personally though, I'm a fan of the Marais Executioner Sword if for no other reason than that flashy as hell Ash of War. And the only other category I'd like to add input to is Dex. Nagakiba is probably the best just because of the combination of the moveset and innate bleed buildup, but I feel like giving an honorable mention to my personal favorite, the Guardian Swordspear. Great scaling, a quick, wide sweeping moveset... All around great weapon, even if there are better picks. Great video 😁
I agree with Gut’s Greatsword. I went strength for my first character, and my friend gave me his Greatsword/Crusher. I love the Crusher, but I’m constantly switching to the Greatsword because of the move set. The Crusher’s reach sucks for pvp.
the giant crusher is OP in pvp because of poise breaking and powerstance. i do agree on the reach but use a powerstance bloodhound step and bleed giantcrusher
crusher isn't even the best in terms of numbers. people go nuts over it just because of the scaling. golden halberd has a higher ar and dps considering its faster swings
an underrated and unexpected strength weapon is the beastmans curved sword. A strength scaling power stance shreds. you can also blood infuse it and put sepuku and it will still have B strength scaling and proc bleed instantly but thats cheap.
Basckstep light on the Greatsword is an overhead slap. I find that attack great for killing birds and other things that get under your swings as well as some more versatility
The Greatsword got a big problem. If you try lock the catacombs small gargoles, you cant hit, caused are so small. And other thing, if you crated small caracther, the invaders got a greatsword cant hit you. Only hit with jump attack, if not, no hit you.
A really strong and very overlooked but overspecialized blade is the Golden Epitaph straight sword. It is fast and it is deadly to most things, but against undead it's a very strong blade. I use it in all tomb runs because of skeletons which it will kill outright. But also there are undead bosses that will fall to it quickly. All of the Death Birds are very vulnerable to it and it takes big chunks of health off of them, the Cemetery Shades die very fast to it. It eats up Tibia Mariners and their summons, The Ancestor Spirits, Decaying Ekzykes, Spirit caller snails, and anything else in the game that is weak to holy damage. I prefer it to the Coded Sword, which ONLY does holy damage because it's still useful against non-undead.
I'm obsessed with clayman's Harpoon skewed magic with the ice spear ash of war it's a work horse skill for exploration and has awesome stagger for bosses
@@jadenbarrett7196 you should have plenty of frostbite capability with the ash of war and if your like me adulas moonblade. So optimal choice is to go magic affinity for more damage cause you'll still be getting plenty of opportunities for frostbite.
Silurias spear is one of my favorites so far. Pretty low damage but you can keep people far away and the running r2 is insane at catching rolls. Im role playing as a crucible tree knight and I like the spear setup better than ordovis sword + crucible shield.
I have fully upgraded giant crusher, heavy great sword and ruin great sword. My best setup for having highest AR is with dual ruins Greatsword with the use of couple boasts I get 1442 ar in each hand. The ash of war is nuts and has the Greatsword moveset. Only drawback is you can’t change the ash of war for something like bloodhound step and I guess the Greatsword has marginal more range.
I can honestly agree with these selections in a way. I chose to use the Ruin Greatsword more than the greatsword, though. On my NG+ and moving to get doubles of all my weapons that I want, which does include the Wing of Astel, even though I am more of a strength/ faith build atm
Some of my favorite weapons are: Great Stars with wild strikes AOW. Can be one handed or two handed but with the AOW wild strikes you can hold L2 until stamina bar runs out. Definitely worth a try for strength build! I also agree with the Wing of Astel as being a great INT weapon. Used with my sorcerer build on first play through!
Respectable list, every time I get a new interesting weapon I upgrade then go straight to them poor bastards at the gatefront in limgrave to test. I know there are better spots but i know I'm not the only one lol. 🔥
It's really not a bad spot for testing how well weapons/spells/skills deal with large groups of enemies. They die fast obviously, but you get to see how everything works.
In my opinion the best int weapon Is the dark Moon greatsword, It can do a huge amount of damage when the skill is active, also you can min max It's damage with talismans and spells and reach 4-5k with One single shot
I like It as well, minus one simple thing, the blade sent by the power attack goes in a straight line in front of you, meaning that you can't kill people up some stairs with it for example. That's quite frustrating.
@@TheRealMoj RageGamingVideos has a video on it actually breaking everything down and some extra tricks to min max it beyond talismans. th-cam.com/video/-F0eftPfE1c/w-d-xo.html
I have seen absolutely no love for the weapon I’ve used for most of my first play through, and that’s the Winged Scythe. Physical and Holy damage, scales on faith, and bleeds. Not to mention, the L2 is hot af lol
yeah that's the weapon I used most through mid-game...so good overall. And it's great in PvP because the weapon art will disable the opponent's ability to use flasks. Definitely doesn't get enough mention in that regard.
Dual godskin peelers with blood build up are my favorite I have a rotten poison greataxe too as my strength weapon and carian regal scepter and golden order seal
My favorite weapons right now are Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear and Antspur Rapier. Being able to attack with them while keeping the Fingerprint Stone Shield raised makes you nearly invincible in PVE.
It’s too bad that Cold affinity Antspur is bugged, having it’s scarlet rot build-up set to 0 if you upgrade it past +6 And for anyone wondering, no, it’s not that it loses it. It verbatim becomes “Scarlet rot build up (0)” once you have a Cold Affinity Antspur upgraded to higher than +6 (but any other affinity does not have this problem). EDIT: spelling
@@cambodianbreastmilk2980 Makes me sad enough I repress the knowledge and just put the Antspur back in the chest, only to later get gut punched when I pull it out and swap it to Cold Affinity. Makes me cry every time…
Rot/Bleed Antspur with the Fingerprint greatshield and guard boost talisman gives you 99 guard boost making you only take 1% stamina damage per block, while you can safely spam your stabs to build bleed and rot, it is amazingly good. You can combine it with both the blood and rot exultation talismans for a massive boost every time you proc either one and pretty much face tank almost everything in the game while poking away. It makes even Malenia feel like a very simply battle of attrition where you just block the full damage of waterfowl while poking away her hp faster than she can regenerate even though you don't even try to dodge any of her hits.
Wing of astel is so awesome. I just got it the other day and I thought it looked so cool and then used it and was blown away at all the things it can do! I didn't think about doubling them up! But I use magic so I need my staff. Definitely have to upgrade this bad boy
I don’t play pvp often, and this is my list, based more on weapon design and how fun it is, rather than trying to max AR: Strength- Prelate’s inferno crozier Dex- bolt of Gransax/hand of Malenia Int-Wing of Astel Faith-Maliketh’s Black Blade Arcane- Elonora’s Poleblade
I upgraded Rivers of Blood for NG+, but can't bring myself to use it Int is the build I have the most experience with, and I agree with Wing of Astel. Fast, versatile, great Ash, super low weight. Top tier int weapon for sure.
Rivers of blood and blasphemous blade easily 1A and 1B for most overpowered weapons like honestly bro don’t fall into and use the rivers of blood unless u need to it kinda takes away from the game a little bit
Wings of astel is in my opinion the best designed unique weapon in game. It has unique mechanics a great skill. The moveset is excellent. I would prefer every unique weapon being this well made even if it meant much less unique weapons overall.
I’d honestly put mogh’s great spear as an honourable mention because it does great bleed build up (better passive bleed buildup than rivers of blood) and it’s L2 has massive range and does a lot of damage! Only downside is that you get locked in the animation doing the L2 for a decently long time but the hyper-armour is really nice and great for both pvp and pve. Still not as good as rivers of blood just because of how broken it is.
bloodflame blade + double slash Ash of war = corpse piler on any sword. Double slash is the same move set as corpse piler, I use it on a Knights Keen Greatsword with a dex/faith build and buff it with Orders Blade for holy damage that scales with my faith stat for stupid damage numbers, golden vow buff too. I've been steam rolling the bosses on newgame+ journey 2, now about to head into Journey 3.
That sword of night and flame is pretty sweet . I have a +9 one and I can't put it down. 634 one handed straight sword. At +10 it will be 700 ish with buffs and i am not even talking about 2 special powers.I think it deserves an honorable mention. And it's already been nerf and it's still strong. Enjoyed the list.
Boring. Everyone uses that damn thing. Get creative and use something cool. There are hundreds of weapons in this game and everyone uses Rivers of blood, Night and Flame, golden halberd, or blasphemous blade.
@@privateuser7 I run a leveled up Lucerne with sword dance. It has a frwat moveset with sweeps and slams with hammer and pokes like a spear. Good range on it and sword dance is quick enough to catch people unexpected. Don't see many people using it.
@@privateuser7 oh no they're playing the game and enjoying it differently to how you think they should!!! quick, better make fun of them and tell them how shit they are!!!
My top picks are very similar to yours Quality: Bloodhounds Fang Strength: Greatsword Dexterity: Hand Of Malenia Intelligence: Wing Of Astel Faith: Blasphemous Blade Arcane: Rivers Of Blood Sacred Relic Sword is bonkers, a stupidly OP weapon, strongest in the game imo.
The Spectral Lance ash with Occult is also nuts. Scales bleed, does wonders for its damage, obscene poise, and fast windup. It's also one of the few weapons an Occult infusion is worthwhile on that can also run Spectral Lance, so... Yeah, worth. Pair with something like a cold clayman's harpoon with ice spear if you want to have your cheese and eat it.
The keen nagakiba carried me through the ENTIRE game from start to finish, malenia and elden beast included, didn’t change my build even once, nagakibas are AMAZING
I love the Rivers of blood for the looks,reminds me alot about the mortal blade and I couldn't pass it up. I mainly use nagakiba with bloodhounds step and lemme tell ya,it can really give RoB a good run for its money
I still prefer using Great Stars. It does strike damage which a lot of enemies are weak to, it does bleed damage and it can be buffed any way you want or just have more bleed added and finally it gives you health back…..what’s not to like!? Totally underrated weapon imo!
Yeah. I laughed a bit when I found out people largely considered flails to suck when I used one all through my first playthrough and demolished with it since I kept up with upgrades
@@alearnedman eh they seem fine honestly, they are a pretty decent blunt option for dex builds, aren't parryable, honestly have some jank hit boxes sometimes
@@scooterberry0605 Yeah, I went dex focus for a long time and shifted to katanas not long after my first playthrough, but I always kept my flail on hand for when I ran into enemies resistant to everything but blunt damage
Duel Wielding Grafted Greatswords is my favorite strength weapon. Buffing with Golden Vow and Flame O Strength, then hitting L2 Weapon Ash which raises all stats 5pts, easily does the most damage with my stats of 80Str and 40 Dex. It’s also light enough where the attacks are quicker than other colossal weapons and you can wear heavier armor cause u have more equipment load to spare.
One of my favorite things about this game is that unlike other FS games it actually encourages and rewards you for being aggressive when fighting! Yes it's still important to read and know the enemy but you don't have to play it safe and just counter and be on the defensive all the time like other FS games
Loved the blasphemous blade for the hp regen originally, ended up using it exclusively in endgame after i got it upgraded because it was doing more damage and it healed me with the special, so i could continuously spam the special on bosses and tank them
I feel like in a list of weapons when you're trying to pick the best one, it has to be the one that forces you to take a good hard look at yourself and just be like 'This is too much. I can't keep doing this, this is making life too easy.' That being said, i'm sticking to my mage build and melting fools with my Azur's Comet. Way too satisfying to give that up.
Played the whole game with the guts sword just bc I love how it looks and feels and has a scaling with strength, still use it in ng++ some would consider it boring but I love it
Solid List. My First Playthrough is a strength build with Guts sword of course (Berserk fan) and was happy to see you felt the same way, it's just so good in ALL scenarios! It'll be fun to change it up second play through and will definitely be using this vid to help formulate which weapons I want to choose
Kind of sad the Guardian Sentinel Swordspear wasn't on the list, considering it's a great A-scaling DEX weapon (as keen) with range, more speed than the average halberd and it's powerstance is just *chef's kiss*. I got my double swordspears going and was just pummelling enemies in PvP with those great moves. Even before dual-wielding, the single swordspear is pretty good with it's unique moveset. Also, I just want to mention this for the Greatsword, since you're running it with Giant's Hunt, off-hand the Pulley Crossbow with sleep bolts on it and you can decimate in PvP. Do the Greatsword poke, fire the 3-round sleep bolt volley and finish with Giant's Hunt. Someone figured out it was essentially a "true combo". The poke will stagger your opponent enough to be unable to dodge the crossbow barrage, which will put them to sleep, giving you enough time to finish them off with Giant's Hunt. Super brutal and, since it starts with that Greatsword poke, comes out pretty fast for a STR user. Final note... maybe it's just me, but does anyone else feel just completely turned off by Katanas in Fromsoft games? They tend to make them relatively broken and it's kind of infuriating to see every weeb ever rocking them? Really feels to me like if they added a Fedora to the game, 90% of Katana users would wear it in a heartbeat.
Disagree. This was the first where the Katana felt OP. Dual katanas were good in DS2 and the frayed blade was great in DS3 but it’s nothing compared to moonblade or rivers of blood.
Have you tried out the Swordspear with Sword Dance and powerstanced it with a Giant Hunt Vulgar Militia Shotel? The poise damage is insane and I’ve yet to meet someone that actually expects that combo going into a duel.
It's by no means top tier but for me the tree sentinel halberd has been my favorite weapon in the game. It's standard R1 is great for roll catching. It's jump attacks are great at dealing heavy damage to single and multiple enemies. It has one of the fastest charged R2 attacks. It's running attack and backstep counter attack is great at breaking poise. It has Golden Vow as its weapon art. You can get it super early in the game. AND it looks awesome. It's not spam friendly like most of the meta weapons relying more on skill and that's just the way I like it.
Hey you guys should try the Giant Crusher with the Cragblade Ash of War it hits like a truck and eats through Shield Stamina often leading to guard breaks.
@@GirlyKat9001 I think you've misunderstood there's an Ash of War called Cragblade which can be applied to the Giant Crusher, this is not the same as the Dragon King's Cragblade which has the "Thunder Cloud Form" Ash of war.
Holly shit this just came across my dash, Hollow you are the reason I picked up Dark Sous 2 and fell in love with souls when I was a kid. Crazy to see you still killing it with Rage, I watched back in Quick Build Challenge days, and your video series with multiple maps per video. All this to say thanks man.
I only have a few of those weapons at the moment, and they are pretty sick, but I find myself using a Claymore more often than not right now. Looks elegant and has my favorite greatsword moveset. I also like the Flamberge and Zweihander a lot as well
While I agree Blasphemous Blade is the best Faith weapon for its utility, I kinda want to shout out the Magma Blade. I just do insane damage output with this curved sword with the right set up (Flame Grant Me Strength, Flame Physic, Rotten Winged Sword Insignia, Golden Vow). It's Ash of War just melt things...literally since you drop puddles of lava when using it. Its a curved sword too, so running 2 gives you the awesome powerstance moveset. Its been my best friend for my pyromancy swordsman run so far.
Glad to see Wing of Astel getting some love. Power stancing this with Serpent God's Curved Sword for HP gains (or holding the Sacrificial Axe in my off hand when I need FP), absolutely carries me through dungeons. The heavy attack is probably the best thing about it too, except for a lot of boss fights... where you can't deny how good Nebula is (it's also satisfying clearing a big mob with it every now and then... especially with the the health and FP gains).
2 consecutive L2's will stagger pretty much any boss for a critical hit. 4 or 5 kills them. That R2 projectile is handy for enemies in poison clouds, you can stand just out of range and fire it off. I'm so glad I traded in Moonveil.
The relic sword is kind of insane, its like blasphemous blade but the ability has a wide arc that continues for ever. You can clear zones with one attack.
Agree. For PVE fun, I've been running NG+ as a lv 300 "paladin" build powerstancing Relic Sword and Golden Order sword, and Erdtree bow and Erdtree Greatshield on side as needed. Both of their ashes are just a blast to swap between, with Relic's just mowing down trash mobs with holy buffing
I'm dex/int hybrid (base faith and arc) and my favorites are the Godskin Twinblade with Seppuku, a Flamberge I switch ashes on depending on the situation, and of course the Dark Moon Greatsword because it's goofy and hits hard. Black Knight Flail with various ashes, Moonveil, and Astel's Wing also see some play, but Godskin/Seppuku is so much fun I hardly ever put it down.
You sound so defeated when you mentioned RoB lmao. What you said are true tho. After experiencing it myself, it felt like I was just cheating the game and didn't deserve to finish my first run with it.
The scariest thing in a duel in my opinion is dual naginata with sepuku(or blood) and blood hound step To proc build in one attack, and do upwards of 1k damage sometimes even 12 hundred And dash around with bhs and never get caught with those stupid i-frames Honestly the only thing thats worse is using carian retaliation (definitely a very accurate top 5 imo, great job guys)
How ridiculous is the ROB? Let’s just say most people would frown on you for even equipping it in pvp. Excellent list man. Radahn’s greatsword, godskin peeler and Fallingstar Beast weapon are my top picks to add to it.
The question is if the nerf is even going to be that big considering that even though the video says Wing of Astel is the best they still have to but the Moonveil in there because its still so powerful post-nerf.
@@terrantabula9847 They did nerf the Moonveil's special R2 poise damage quite a bit, and that was its biggest advantage over other katanas. So now the question becomes, how do they adjust RoB so it becomes less busted, particularly in PVP. They could go a few different directions: Nerf the total AR; Nerf the bleed proc; Nerf the range on the L2, or some combination of the three. I personally think the wisest thing might be to reduce the range of the L2, while increasing FP cost, so it becomes harder to spam in PVP. But I'm not exactly an expert.
@@entroponetics It's biggest advantage is that it's a weapon with natural bleed and a ranged special attack that, if you also hit with the blade, does patently absurd damage. The poise damage was always, imo, just a bonus since most enemies won't survive much longer than if their poise did break. I feel that the best course of action, which is what Fromsoft might do with a lot of different weapons, is reduce the status buildup. If you go from a weapon that needs two hits to proc a status to three hits, that doesn't seem like much but is actually a big deal. RoB would still be 100% viable in the PvP and PvE, but spammers will have a harder time.
I 100% agree on the Blasphemous blade. It is my favorite weapon in the game. LOVE that weapon. My 2nd favorite weapon is a Dagger, The Black Blade is so freaking OP and so fun to use.
For strength I’d also mention the beast mans curved greatsword and beast mans curved sword dual wield they are nasty when made heavy and can be buffed massively by incantations
The sacred relic sword does over 900 damage for me, other weapons are around there too, and when bleed procs with rivers of blood you’re doing damage in the thousands, so that being said I find little reason to use big heavy weapons other than for fun or to hopefully stagger enemies, but even that isn’t necessary
Eleonora’s Poleblade is an awesome weapon. It scales with dexterity and arcane, is fire elemental, and is pretty fun to duel wield with another twin blade. It’s not the most powerful but the Blood dance can stagger almost all enemies.
@@teexcv It's pretty much always better to have the stat with better scaling on the weapon higher than the other. Then it depends on the weapon's specs, the maxed out Rivers Of Blood, for example has a B DEX scaling, and a D Arcane scaling, but as the main purpose of this weapon is to spam Corpse Piller, which does crazy blood damage, as well as fire damage, you will get more from it by having higher ARC than DEX.
I struggled with Malenia for a while until I equipped Rivers of Blood. It took less than 30 seconds to beat her on the first occasion with Rivers of Blood.
Love the video! I use Radahn great swords or Ruins great sword & with 55 strength after golden vow, Flame grant strength, & physick buffs I’m at 1352 damage! Was a dex/katana user until I got used to the slower swings & now it’s my go to 100%
its not bad but here the video is about the absolutely best for each stat (of course an opinion as well). I don't disagree with the Gut's greatsword, highly versatile moveset. Royal GS is good too but it's ash of war is mostly PVE unless you're playing vs noobs. It's also very restrictive in that it only starts getting good at high levels due to the scaling on both STR/INT so you need to be high rune level, like mb RL150 for it to be stronger than guts while not losing out on vigor/end etc.
@@juniorelizondo4144 it hits twice and the flight portion has really strong hyper armor like what marikas hammer does, first hit is pinpoint damage but the second is a big explosion, with the right buffs and dual wield, i can have 2 of em with 1600+AR each, a jump attack is deadly.
I suck so bad at the game, without rivers of blood I would not have been able to beat a lot of the bosses without 758384748 tries. I hope it doesn’t get nerfed, well accept for in pvp.
imo the best strength weapon is the bloodhound blade, even tho it requires dex, it has about 901 damage (dex + str) and has a flip/teleport attack thats so fun and stylish to you and its great for breaking poise
The Dark Moon great sword is actually the best weapon in the game as far as damage output. Once it's at +10 and you equip the right 4 talismans along with mixed physic. It can one-shot major bosses in the game. Something like 16k damage. No other weapon comes close.
@@ezeola6348 I'm not sure what build but I don't think it has anything to do with build. And my initial statement was wrong. It's actually 6k damage. There are 4 talismans and the jelly shield + mixed physic that increases + Rogiers armor increases its output by 135%. You can't do that to any other weapon.
I basically love all these weapons, one weapon I've been enjoying (especially while using the matching armor) is the royal greatsword, I believe it's called. Basically it's blaidds weapon, cant use an aow , but the wolf's assault it comes with is actually really good imo. It has the colossal sword move set and that is really good too!
You know the game has good staves and sacred seals and bows too? No mention of lion bow with its awesome skill? Price of death staff with the crazy sorcery scaling? Sometimes people forget this isn't just a melee game.
River of Blood's really needs to follow suit with other bleed ash of wars. Make it deal self damage whenever it is used. Also with the Nagakiba, also works really well with double slash and unsheathe.
Used to do a blaidd cosplay and gotta say his sword hits so hard and just makes you feel strong. Also love the AoW because even if the frost isn’t much the damage is, also for some reason in pvp most people forget about the second burst of ice when you take your sword out of the ground so it’s nice
Im a dex/arc focus pvp build and i run dual scav-swords +24 (still in 1st play through), with either Bloody slash i think the ash of war is and hoarfrost on the other or poison mist on the other. As with the astel blades, the run up lb/l1 combo is ridiculously good at gap close and it hits twice. if you squeeze a crouch in while running before you lb/l1, you get a double upswing which is good for those 2h str guys that like to jump heavy attack.
I hope they dont nerf RoB to bad, I want it to remain viable for those that love its look. I dont even use it but I'll admit one of the coolest designs, se deserve some cool for us non pvpers Sad to not see a mention of the great stars HP steal but I understand its not the best of the best either lol
@@dusty111 I hope it gets the same treatment, I've seen a lot of games over nerf popular items then it fades into obscurity. Would be a shame for one of the coolest weapon designs in the game, just because it was to powerful at one time. But yes it's hard to argue it doesn't need a nerf, its incredibly strong.
@@gozzilla177 i really like the design too, might have gone for an arkane build at some point but most RoB users tend to only know one button... It might help to raise the FP cost so they won't spam it nonstop. The attack itself is extremely strong but can be dodged, if they spam the weaponart only though it just gets annoying and at some point you will get hit of you don't use bloodhound step
The Nagikiba with Double Slash and blood affinity turns into "Rivers of Blood" but longer AND it has like 115 bleed instead of 75 AND Double slash is exactly the same move set as Rivers of Blood, but on the Nagakiba the reach is better. Tested it on Omens in the underground and its almost exactly the same damage output as rivers of Blood but better reach and it seems to break poise better too
It’s even better if you wield two at one time…buddy of mine gave me another bloodhounds fang from his run through so I got 2 +10…lemme tell ya!! It’s worth it lmao
The rivers of blood is what sold me on this game I had jus beaten bloodborne and was fond of the chikage mainly the damage you do when you use trick mode or the unsheathe move
What about the ruin greatsword? I've hit 3k on bosses, 1.8k in pvp using weapon art. Plus has hyper armor with AoW so you can lure people in to one shot them lol. Lmk your thoughts
Strength is at 99 int 36. Use shard of Alexander, Flame grant me strength and golden vow. My AR is 1012 w/o the two buffs. With golden vow my AR is 1164. With GV and flame grant me strength my AR is 1372. Use the ash of war point blank and enjoy!
I run 2 Nagakibas and destroy everybody lol No crazy Magic, no crazy weapon switching, just str8 up SWORDSMEN style. Definitely feel like it’s the best Katana in the game simply because of its “reach”.
I remember rivers of blood was the first build video I ever watched of this game before the arcane scaling was even fixed and I loved everything about the weapon, but now that it's been used and abused by every single player in the game after arcane got patched I don't even want to touch it with a 10 foot pole anymore. Kinda sad to see it go this way
I mean it’s obviously gonna get nerfed into oblivion. if u like it, I would use it until they inevitably make it obsolete. That goes with bleed in general (probably) but for sure rivers is getting a huge nerf
@@death-thresh9548 who the fuck cares about this stupid honor crap in a video game anyway " i feet dirty using a weapon in a video game oh no" might at well use nothing but your fists then
Rivers of blood can be a very broken sword but you have to keep in mind that not many people enjoy PVP in ER so if they were to nerf rivers of blood just to satisfy people who only play PVP it would be unfortunate really, I just I'm going on my first run and I haven't had the pleasure of trying it yet but it would be very bad if they nerfed it before trying it
Let’s be honest Fromsoft have done a bloody good job with placing so many viable weapons in this utterly awesome massive game 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Cut to a normal day of invasions and everyone is still on moonveils, rivers and bh steps.
@@joshaqy they can keep rivers. It's not even the best bleed weapon, so I'm cool with it. Bh step is fine considering that it has to be on a basic weapon
Right?! Like I was just remembering how DS3 had like 2 weapons and mage builds lol
@@The261ride for me, the twinblades have been the most fun, and are also effective with different buffs since the moveset is quick and multi hit
@@duffstrodamus3233 I run falling star beast jaw+10 w mad fp and bosses can’t fight back mimic tear distracts while I spam away😂
I did probably 90% of my first play through with the Bloodhound’s Fang. Great sword, bloodloss buildup, good range, not too slow, and the special hits, gets out, causes you to disappear, and damage again.
I am doing my current playthrough with it. I love it so much and really find it hard to swith to another weapon
ditto great damage and move set decent speed lol took a bit to realise there was a follow up to the ash of war i thought the backflip its self was awesome but the teleport slash justy does so much damage and huge amount of s, fantasticc weapon oh and bleed on top of it all? like god damn glad i realised early it was special
I’ve been using it up until level 125 ish, now I’m using the blasphemous blade. That faith and strength scaling is really nice
Same here. I keep trying to find a new sword and literally nothing makes me want to switch.
Yeap. As a Dex/Fai char I got the bloodhound early on and I'm just not finding anything that is better (also due to lack of smithing stones for my other weapons I guess).
I have stronger weapons, but they are slower, so bloodhound still maws done enemies faster, especially when bloodloss triggers after a few hits.
➖ *Time Stamps* ➖
00:00 Intro
➖ *Strength* ➖
01:12 Giant-Crusher
02:08 *#5 Greatsword*
➖ *Dexterity* ➖
04:27 *#4 Nagakiba*
Other Options
05:33 Uchigatana
05:35 Hand of Malenia
05:38 Cross-Naginata (Second best after Nagakiba)
➖ *Intelligence* ➖
07:05 *#3 Wing of Astel*
08:53 Moonveil
09:06 Dark Moon Greatsword
➖ *Faith* ➖
10:00 *#2 Blasphemous Blade*
10:28 Golden Order Greatsword
➖ *Arcane* ➖
12:28 *#1 Rivers of Blood* (Best in the Game)
14:47 Outro
15:42 Outro Rap
You da real MVP.
**clicks on outro rap because reasons**
Doing the work they aren't willing to do.
@@talkingmudcrab718 that outro has no business being that good
Thank you.
Am surprise Gargoyle's Twin Blades and Godskin Peeler aren't here. These are easily the best weps in the game. Am doing 13k+ with just 2 jump attacks of the bleed/frost combo.
Edit: I am at Lv 713 with most gear and talismans. That's why I can confidently say this, as I've tested the other weapons on this list on NG+7.
Wing of Astel is one of the best because the skill goes through walls which helps with annoying enemies like imps and you can catch them without them seeing you
found wing of Astel first week in and my god i grave lorded with taunters tongue and got 10 to 1 kd its such a underrated weapon just because of moonveil im glad to see it starting to get some respect on its name. side note if anyone has tried its mace counterpart lmk if its good i suck with the mace moveset
@@lolzasouruhm179 i tried to use the mace but it makes a noise everytime you move and it was too annoying lol
No FP costs on the R2 projectile, and the fact that it can be charged and/or comboed, that alone makes the weapon top tier. Then consider its L2 ash of war that can absolutely melt large bosses or groups of enemies. I only discovered it late in the game but it’s absolutely a powerhouse with my dex/int build! I powerstance it with a cold scavengers curved sword and you have bleed, frost and magic damage all at once! Its pretty insane.
I also wanna shout out Bastard Stars, the Astel boss weapon, it’s a pretty awesome magic flail, rocks with a dex/int build as well, and it’s L2 is a cool variation on the Nebula ash of war that is great for crowd control. The combination of striking and magic damage is really strong against a lot of enemies as well
@@joshmay2944 Bastard's Stars having that massive first hit on the ash makes up for its slow startup by doing a shitload of poise damage and raw contact damage, yeah. It's a bit annoying due to the jangling, but it hits like a sack of depleted uranium.
you see i would use it, but it looks fucking stupid so moonveil for me
u forgot to mention that the charged attack of wing of astel is cancelable by tapping the roll button, which then turns into kind of a mini bloudfang weapon art type attack. amazing for mixing it up even more in pvp
that mechanic is on most light swords, not sure what makes a sword viable for it because ive noticed not all weapons have it even in the same category.
@@cbiggs3 im not 100% sure about this, but i think all curved swords have it (maybe also the curved-greatswords, but i never used them myself not even in ds3). nonetheless the point i tried to make was that its especially usefull on the wing, because the opponent would be expecting a ranged magic attack
He did say it's curved. All curved swords do that. So it was implied.
Another really good faith weapon is the Halo Scythe from the Cleanrot Knights. Has good melee range with blood loss and the Ash of War Miquella's Ring of Light (AKA Krillin's Destructo Disc) has good range giving versatility and the damage is really good as well. Been using it a lot and I've progressed quite a bit because of it.
exact same weapon im using, i defeated the boss after margit second try with it, best thing to do is to use summons to distract bosses then spam the rings
can confirm. in mountain of giants now with this at +9 and Halo Sythe is still hard carrying me. very versatile, lots of fun.
Its a great PvE weapon, but its easy to avoid the ash in duels.
Blasphemous Blade is lowkey OP: it has the damage, lifesteal, poise damage, scaling, and everything else you would need on a weapon
With some faith buffs, you can literally facetank bosses while you spam the ash
Now if it didn't have those creepy red arms
Blasphemous is definitely not low key, its straight up known as OP
@@hby7768 The ash used to be bugged, now it's fixed and you can heal like a fifth of your hp every time you hit it
It's definitely op, people just haven't started to pick it up as much as other weapons
The creepy arms are the best part!
@@luskarian4055 everyone has been using it since 1.0 through 1.3xxx so it never fell off maybe they cycled to the arcane build - for something to be “low key” it means it was never mainstream or most people never knew about it.
Your choice of words insinuates that no one knew how powerful it is or how powerful it was - everyone was using this to farm if they didn’t want to dupe. You’re right this weapon gives you anywhere from very little to a chunk of your hp back but i felt like it was doing that since 1.1, i never use it in 1.0 tho.
@@luskarian4055 the main reason it hasn't been picked up I think is beacuse it's weapon art is almost impossible to hit someone in pvp with if they know what's coming so it's just about a pure pve weapon
I think the ruin greatsword deserved to be mention in the list. It AoW has really good range, it wide and hit super hard. Which is great because usually strength weapons have really short range combat and having the option to whoop ass an entire group of enemies from like 100 meters away is just awesome.
I think the reason it wasn't included was due to it's int requirement and scaling, which hamper the weapon in a pure strength build
@@joshuachurchill2858 yeah it could be that too but he does include it in one of his video about top 5 best strength build weapons, so i'm pretty surprised that he didn't mention it in this video. Also it scaled very minimum with int so you only need 16 for the requirement and pump all in to str since it scaled very good with it (at +10 it has an S with str and barely a D with int). In my opinion it fit really well with a pure strength build
I've recently started using ruin and holy crap this thing wrecks everything lol. I'm a int strength build chilling at level 150 not going higher than that. Put 60 int, 38 strength, 15 dex, 27 end, 43 Vigor, 26 mind. I use the strength talisman+helmet+attributes talisman to boost to get 50 str. Attribute talisman gives me 5 points to vig, dex, strength ,end, I can use all the best str weapons and have a moonveil for backup. Totally love my build
it loses points for being ugly looking
@@bayouninja48 u gotta find the falling star beast jaw from the full grown beast I ran ruin till I got it it’s the best str/int by far imo
There are so many great weapons in this game! Love how so many are viable and different to make combat so much fun!
This is why this game is taking my life away from me 🤣😂
There are so many great options for each stat in this game, I love it. So much variety and diversity of builds. Of course Rivers of Cringe was going to be the top Arcane pick, it's just objectively the best in that category. Personally though, I'm a fan of the Marais Executioner Sword if for no other reason than that flashy as hell Ash of War. And the only other category I'd like to add input to is Dex. Nagakiba is probably the best just because of the combination of the moveset and innate bleed buildup, but I feel like giving an honorable mention to my personal favorite, the Guardian Swordspear. Great scaling, a quick, wide sweeping moveset... All around great weapon, even if there are better picks. Great video 😁
I agree with Gut’s Greatsword. I went strength for my first character, and my friend gave me his Greatsword/Crusher. I love the Crusher, but I’m constantly switching to the Greatsword because of the move set. The Crusher’s reach sucks for pvp.
the giant crusher is OP in pvp because of poise breaking and powerstance. i do agree on the reach but use a powerstance bloodhound step and bleed giantcrusher
Duuude same here dual colossal weapons ungabunga gang all day💪💪
Guts, his name is guts!
@@devc9529 it is not “op” lol, Their are faiths that outpoise it very easily, its also ridiculously slow
crusher isn't even the best in terms of numbers. people go nuts over it just because of the scaling. golden halberd has a higher ar and dps considering its faster swings
an underrated and unexpected strength weapon is the beastmans curved sword. A strength scaling power stance shreds. you can also blood infuse it and put sepuku and it will still have B strength scaling and proc bleed instantly but thats cheap.
I love it as it has such a quick attack speed which is a great change of pace to most strength weapons
Basckstep light on the Greatsword is an overhead slap. I find that attack great for killing birds and other things that get under your swings as well as some more versatility
Things that fly 💩🔥
The Backstep light on dual greatsword is a poke with both greatswords.
@@KyzaelEomei I didn't know that one
The Greatsword got a big problem.
If you try lock the catacombs small gargoles, you cant hit, caused are so small.
And other thing, if you crated small caracther, the invaders got a greatsword cant hit you.
Only hit with jump attack, if not, no hit you.
crouching r1 when ur looking upwards with the camera may help as well for some, not all sure but some
A really strong and very overlooked but overspecialized blade is the Golden Epitaph straight sword. It is fast and it is deadly to most things, but against undead it's a very strong blade. I use it in all tomb runs because of skeletons which it will kill outright. But also there are undead bosses that will fall to it quickly. All of the Death Birds are very vulnerable to it and it takes big chunks of health off of them, the Cemetery Shades die very fast to it. It eats up Tibia Mariners and their summons, The Ancestor Spirits, Decaying Ekzykes, Spirit caller snails, and anything else in the game that is weak to holy damage. I prefer it to the Coded Sword, which ONLY does holy damage because it's still useful against non-undead.
Damn...need to get that weapon.
yea, this weapon rides on undead like train
useless D scaling though
I'm obsessed with clayman's Harpoon skewed magic with the ice spear ash of war it's a work horse skill for exploration and has awesome stagger for bosses
That’s exactly my melee weapon as a Caster, too ! It’s awesome and strikes harder w the Ice Spear throw than my actual charged Comet spells ! 😀
Yup lowkey OP with the double int scaling on it
you set it to magic affinity for the ash of war or cold?
@@jadenbarrett7196 you should have plenty of frostbite capability with the ash of war and if your like me adulas moonblade. So optimal choice is to go magic affinity for more damage cause you'll still be getting plenty of opportunities for frostbite.
It’s so interesting, love when people use builds that aren’t the “best”
Silurias spear is one of my favorites so far. Pretty low damage but you can keep people far away and the running r2 is insane at catching rolls. Im role playing as a crucible tree knight and I like the spear setup better than ordovis sword + crucible shield.
I have fully upgraded giant crusher, heavy great sword and ruin great sword. My best setup for having highest AR is with dual ruins Greatsword with the use of couple boasts I get 1442 ar in each hand. The ash of war is nuts and has the Greatsword moveset. Only drawback is you can’t change the ash of war for something like bloodhound step and I guess the Greatsword has marginal more range.
I can honestly agree with these selections in a way. I chose to use the Ruin Greatsword more than the greatsword, though. On my NG+ and moving to get doubles of all my weapons that I want, which does include the Wing of Astel, even though I am more of a strength/ faith build atm
How is magma whip?
Some of my favorite weapons are:
Great Stars with wild strikes AOW. Can be one handed or two handed but with the AOW wild strikes you can hold L2 until stamina bar runs out. Definitely worth a try for strength build!
I also agree with the Wing of Astel as being a great INT weapon. Used with my sorcerer build on first play through!
Respectable list, every time I get a new interesting weapon I upgrade then go straight to them poor bastards at the gatefront in limgrave to test. I know there are better spots but i know I'm not the only one lol. 🔥
You’re not the only one lol
Same bruh😭
😂 just did that testing blasphemous blade
It's really not a bad spot for testing how well weapons/spells/skills deal with large groups of enemies. They die fast obviously, but you get to see how everything works.
I couldn't even begin to count how many times I've killed those guys lol
In my opinion the best int weapon Is the dark Moon greatsword, It can do a huge amount of damage when the skill is active, also you can min max It's damage with talismans and spells and reach 4-5k with One single shot
What talismans and spells do you run with it? I just started using it yesterday and have it at +10 but I don't see near that kind of damage with it.
I like It as well, minus one simple thing, the blade sent by the power attack goes in a straight line in front of you, meaning that you can't kill people up some stairs with it for example.
That's quite frustrating.
@@TheRealMoj
Magic Scorpion Charm
Godfrey Icon
Shard Of Alexander
Terra Magica
Golden Vow
Flame Grant Me Strength
@@TheRealMoj RageGamingVideos has a video on it actually breaking everything down and some extra tricks to min max it beyond talismans. th-cam.com/video/-F0eftPfE1c/w-d-xo.html
@@Kmarad_ bro when that happens dont lock on and look up
I feel like you should have done 2 picks for each. One somber and one normal smithing stone.
That’s a great idea.
I have seen absolutely no love for the weapon I’ve used for most of my first play through, and that’s the Winged Scythe. Physical and Holy damage, scales on faith, and bleeds. Not to mention, the L2 is hot af lol
Yeaaaaaaa
Love Love love the winged scythe
yeah that's the weapon I used most through mid-game...so good overall. And it's great in PvP because the weapon art will disable the opponent's ability to use flasks. Definitely doesn't get enough mention in that regard.
Dual godskin peelers with blood build up are my favorite I have a rotten poison greataxe too as my strength weapon and carian regal scepter and golden order seal
My favorite weapons right now are Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear and Antspur Rapier. Being able to attack with them while keeping the Fingerprint Stone Shield raised makes you nearly invincible in PVE.
It’s too bad that Cold affinity Antspur is bugged, having it’s scarlet rot build-up set to 0 if you upgrade it past +6
And for anyone wondering, no, it’s not that it loses it. It verbatim becomes “Scarlet rot build up (0)” once you have a Cold Affinity Antspur upgraded to higher than +6 (but any other affinity does not have this problem).
EDIT: spelling
I just beat that dick head dragon on the bridge with the antspur rapier. It's a fun weapon.
@@EdinLG I noticed that yesterday.
@@cambodianbreastmilk2980 Makes me sad enough I repress the knowledge and just put the Antspur back in the chest, only to later get gut punched when I pull it out and swap it to Cold Affinity.
Makes me cry every time…
Rot/Bleed Antspur with the Fingerprint greatshield and guard boost talisman gives you 99 guard boost making you only take 1% stamina damage per block, while you can safely spam your stabs to build bleed and rot, it is amazingly good. You can combine it with both the blood and rot exultation talismans for a massive boost every time you proc either one and pretty much face tank almost everything in the game while poking away. It makes even Malenia feel like a very simply battle of attrition where you just block the full damage of waterfowl while poking away her hp faster than she can regenerate even though you don't even try to dodge any of her hits.
Yes! Totally agree with Greatsword ! I actually re-spec’s a few times to try other statistically better weapons and went back to it 😝
Wing of astel is so awesome. I just got it the other day and I thought it looked so cool and then used it and was blown away at all the things it can do! I didn't think about doubling them up! But I use magic so I need my staff. Definitely have to upgrade this bad boy
How do you equip 2?
I don’t play pvp often, and this is my list, based more on weapon design and how fun it is, rather than trying to max AR:
Strength- Prelate’s inferno crozier
Dex- bolt of Gransax/hand of Malenia
Int-Wing of Astel
Faith-Maliketh’s Black Blade
Arcane- Elonora’s Poleblade
I upgraded Rivers of Blood for NG+, but can't bring myself to use it
Int is the build I have the most experience with, and I agree with Wing of Astel. Fast, versatile, great Ash, super low weight. Top tier int weapon for sure.
Rivers of blood and blasphemous blade easily 1A and 1B for most overpowered weapons like honestly bro don’t fall into and use the rivers of blood unless u need to it kinda takes away from the game a little bit
Wings of astel is in my opinion the best designed unique weapon in game. It has unique mechanics a great skill. The moveset is excellent. I would prefer every unique weapon being this well made even if it meant much less unique weapons overall.
Awesome picks!
I’d honestly put mogh’s great spear as an honourable mention because it does great bleed build up (better passive bleed buildup than rivers of blood) and it’s L2 has massive range and does a lot of damage! Only downside is that you get locked in the animation doing the L2 for a decently long time but the hyper-armour is really nice and great for both pvp and pve. Still not as good as rivers of blood just because of how broken it is.
Just too slow. All his choices were quick
yeah rivers is pretty quick, its broken af tbh
The spear is bad in pvp and f I ever use ur ult vs a good player ur going to get punished
bloodflame blade + double slash Ash of war = corpse piler on any sword.
Double slash is the same move set as corpse piler, I use it on a Knights Keen Greatsword with a dex/faith build and buff it with Orders Blade for holy damage that scales with my faith stat for stupid damage numbers, golden vow buff too. I've been steam rolling the bosses on newgame+ journey 2, now about to head into Journey 3.
That sword of night and flame is pretty sweet . I have a +9 one and I can't put it down. 634 one handed straight sword. At +10 it will be 700 ish with buffs and i am not even talking about 2 special powers.I think it deserves an honorable mention. And it's already been nerf and it's still strong. Enjoyed the list.
Boring. Everyone uses that damn thing. Get creative and use something cool. There are hundreds of weapons in this game and everyone uses Rivers of blood, Night and Flame, golden halberd, or blasphemous blade.
@@privateuser7 thats a first play through weapon let em have their fun lol
@@privateuser7 I run a leveled up Lucerne with sword dance. It has a frwat moveset with sweeps and slams with hammer and pokes like a spear. Good range on it and sword dance is quick enough to catch people unexpected. Don't see many people using it.
@@privateuser7 let people play how they want, who cares how they play.
@@privateuser7 oh no they're playing the game and enjoying it differently to how you think they should!!! quick, better make fun of them and tell them how shit they are!!!
My top picks are very similar to yours
Quality: Bloodhounds Fang
Strength: Greatsword
Dexterity: Hand Of Malenia
Intelligence: Wing Of Astel
Faith: Blasphemous Blade
Arcane: Rivers Of Blood
Sacred Relic Sword is bonkers, a stupidly OP weapon, strongest in the game imo.
Cross-Naginata with the Cold Ice Spear ash of war SLAPS surprisingly hard.
I actually just decided to get my naginata to +24 for my ice sword spell build
The Spectral Lance ash with Occult is also nuts. Scales bleed, does wonders for its damage, obscene poise, and fast windup. It's also one of the few weapons an Occult infusion is worthwhile on that can also run Spectral Lance, so... Yeah, worth.
Pair with something like a cold clayman's harpoon with ice spear if you want to have your cheese and eat it.
If you get another one then you have one of the best builds for building up status in the game.
Bloodhound's Fang and Ghiza's Wheel are my two favs
Yes my berserk greatsword!!! I'm using since the beginning
The keen nagakiba carried me through the ENTIRE game from start to finish, malenia and elden beast included, didn’t change my build even once, nagakibas are AMAZING
I love the Rivers of blood for the looks,reminds me alot about the mortal blade and I couldn't pass it up. I mainly use nagakiba with bloodhounds step and lemme tell ya,it can really give RoB a good run for its money
cringe
Gay
I still prefer using Great Stars. It does strike damage which a lot of enemies are weak to, it does bleed damage and it can be buffed any way you want or just have more bleed added and finally it gives you health back…..what’s not to like!? Totally underrated weapon imo!
Top 5 most op weapons more like ALL WEAPONS IN ELDEN RING
Yeah. I laughed a bit when I found out people largely considered flails to suck when I used one all through my first playthrough and demolished with it since I kept up with upgrades
@@alearnedman fails suck? That's news to me
@@scooterberry0605 "Suck" is probably too strong a word, "lackluster" is more appropriate
@@alearnedman eh they seem fine honestly, they are a pretty decent blunt option for dex builds, aren't parryable, honestly have some jank hit boxes sometimes
@@scooterberry0605 Yeah, I went dex focus for a long time and shifted to katanas not long after my first playthrough, but I always kept my flail on hand for when I ran into enemies resistant to everything but blunt damage
Duel Wielding Grafted Greatswords is my favorite strength weapon. Buffing with Golden Vow and Flame O Strength, then hitting L2 Weapon Ash which raises all stats 5pts, easily does the most damage with my stats of 80Str and 40 Dex. It’s also light enough where the attacks are quicker than other colossal weapons and you can wear heavier armor cause u have more equipment load to spare.
Blasphemous blade together with sword of milos is a great combo for pve
One of my favorite things about this game is that unlike other FS games it actually encourages and rewards you for being aggressive when fighting! Yes it's still important to read and know the enemy but you don't have to play it safe and just counter and be on the defensive all the time like other FS games
I’m just happy the greatsword finally gets some love. It’s my go to weapon and it is so fun to use!
The greatsword has always been one of the best weapons in any game it's appeared in.
Loved the blasphemous blade for the hp regen originally, ended up using it exclusively in endgame after i got it upgraded because it was doing more damage and it healed me with the special, so i could continuously spam the special on bosses and tank them
I feel like in a list of weapons when you're trying to pick the best one, it has to be the one that forces you to take a good hard look at yourself and just be like 'This is too much. I can't keep doing this, this is making life too easy.' That being said, i'm sticking to my mage build and melting fools with my Azur's Comet. Way too satisfying to give that up.
Ngl chief kinda sounds like u cant beat malenia with a pure strength build
Played the whole game with the guts sword just bc I love how it looks and feels and has a scaling with strength, still use it in ng++ some would consider it boring but I love it
I love the greatsword range and stagger for multiple mobs or just stopping an enemy from moving.
Solid List. My First Playthrough is a strength build with Guts sword of course (Berserk fan) and was happy to see you felt the same way, it's just so good in ALL scenarios! It'll be fun to change it up second play through and will definitely be using this vid to help formulate which weapons I want to choose
Kind of sad the Guardian Sentinel Swordspear wasn't on the list, considering it's a great A-scaling DEX weapon (as keen) with range, more speed than the average halberd and it's powerstance is just *chef's kiss*. I got my double swordspears going and was just pummelling enemies in PvP with those great moves. Even before dual-wielding, the single swordspear is pretty good with it's unique moveset.
Also, I just want to mention this for the Greatsword, since you're running it with Giant's Hunt, off-hand the Pulley Crossbow with sleep bolts on it and you can decimate in PvP. Do the Greatsword poke, fire the 3-round sleep bolt volley and finish with Giant's Hunt. Someone figured out it was essentially a "true combo". The poke will stagger your opponent enough to be unable to dodge the crossbow barrage, which will put them to sleep, giving you enough time to finish them off with Giant's Hunt. Super brutal and, since it starts with that Greatsword poke, comes out pretty fast for a STR user.
Final note... maybe it's just me, but does anyone else feel just completely turned off by Katanas in Fromsoft games? They tend to make them relatively broken and it's kind of infuriating to see every weeb ever rocking them? Really feels to me like if they added a Fedora to the game, 90% of Katana users would wear it in a heartbeat.
Disagree. This was the first where the Katana felt OP. Dual katanas were good in DS2 and the frayed blade was great in DS3 but it’s nothing compared to moonblade or rivers of blood.
DS3 katanas were ok. DS2 was the last souls game with broken katanas, but that was mostly because of netcode and size (Washing pole…)
Have you tried out the Swordspear with Sword Dance and powerstanced it with a Giant Hunt Vulgar Militia Shotel? The poise damage is insane and I’ve yet to meet someone that actually expects that combo going into a duel.
Sir, this is a Wendy's
It's by no means top tier but for me the tree sentinel halberd has been my favorite weapon in the game. It's standard R1 is great for roll catching. It's jump attacks are great at dealing heavy damage to single and multiple enemies. It has one of the fastest charged R2 attacks. It's running attack and backstep counter attack is great at breaking poise. It has Golden Vow as its weapon art. You can get it super early in the game. AND it looks awesome. It's not spam friendly like most of the meta weapons relying more on skill and that's just the way I like it.
It's easily top tier. ❤
Hey you guys should try the Giant Crusher with the Cragblade Ash of War it hits like a truck and eats through Shield Stamina often leading to guard breaks.
Only way to get Thundercloud form on a weapon other than the Cragblade is well...
hacking, as this does not exist as an ash of war in the game.
@@GirlyKat9001 picked up the ash of war cragblade earlier today, not sure I have the weapon itself just yet
@@GirlyKat9001 They might be talking Cragblade where you cover the weapon in rocks and not the Thundercloud form.
@@GirlyKat9001 I think you've misunderstood there's an Ash of War called Cragblade which can be applied to the Giant Crusher, this is not the same as the Dragon King's Cragblade which has the "Thunder Cloud Form" Ash of war.
Holly shit this just came across my dash, Hollow you are the reason I picked up Dark Sous 2 and fell in love with souls when I was a kid.
Crazy to see you still killing it with Rage, I watched back in Quick Build Challenge days, and your video series with multiple maps per video.
All this to say thanks man.
I feel like every build is OP and still the game remains a challenge. Such a masterpiece.
Been using the wing thing since the beginning with my spellblade, glad it's getting recognition.
I really like Godslayer greadsword, Because it is just soo cool Ash of war.
Elanora's Poleblade is my go to for a Bleed/Arcane Build. The space you can create or make up with it is just so handy.
running NG+2 with eleonora's and godskin peeler. just beat rennala so I could respec to arcane from faith (ran blasphemous for NG+)
I only have a few of those weapons at the moment, and they are pretty sick, but I find myself using a Claymore more often than not right now. Looks elegant and has my favorite greatsword moveset. I also like the Flamberge and Zweihander a lot as well
I started with a straight sword, and to bloody slash claymore, but once I got the blasphemous blade it was over
While I agree Blasphemous Blade is the best Faith weapon for its utility, I kinda want to shout out the Magma Blade. I just do insane damage output with this curved sword with the right set up (Flame Grant Me Strength, Flame Physic, Rotten Winged Sword Insignia, Golden Vow). It's Ash of War just melt things...literally since you drop puddles of lava when using it. Its a curved sword too, so running 2 gives you the awesome powerstance moveset. Its been my best friend for my pyromancy swordsman run so far.
I love the magma blade. My stats are kinda split, but it still slaps. Has an A rating in strength if I remember correctly
Glad to see Wing of Astel getting some love. Power stancing this with Serpent God's Curved Sword for HP gains (or holding the Sacrificial Axe in my off hand when I need FP), absolutely carries me through dungeons.
The heavy attack is probably the best thing about it too, except for a lot of boss fights... where you can't deny how good Nebula is (it's also satisfying clearing a big mob with it every now and then... especially with the the health and FP gains).
2 consecutive L2's will stagger pretty much any boss for a critical hit. 4 or 5 kills them. That R2 projectile is handy for enemies in poison clouds, you can stand just out of range and fire it off. I'm so glad I traded in Moonveil.
+9 wing of astel nebula carried me through the fire giant last night. getting behind him and spamming that ash completely trivialized him
@@Based_investor I was running Moonveil before WoA too. Wing is just too handy and costs less to use. I just miss the bleed build up.
@@chrisfndproductions I find that with most giant sized bosses... but was especially happy to have it with him!
i run a rivers of blood and dual nagakiba bleed build. I am very pleased with today's video XD
The relic sword is kind of insane, its like blasphemous blade but the ability has a wide arc that continues for ever. You can clear zones with one attack.
Agree. For PVE fun, I've been running NG+ as a lv 300 "paladin" build powerstancing Relic Sword and Golden Order sword, and Erdtree bow and Erdtree Greatshield on side as needed. Both of their ashes are just a blast to swap between, with Relic's just mowing down trash mobs with holy buffing
I'm dex/int hybrid (base faith and arc) and my favorites are the Godskin Twinblade with Seppuku, a Flamberge I switch ashes on depending on the situation, and of course the Dark Moon Greatsword because it's goofy and hits hard. Black Knight Flail with various ashes, Moonveil, and Astel's Wing also see some play, but Godskin/Seppuku is so much fun I hardly ever put it down.
You sound so defeated when you mentioned RoB lmao. What you said are true tho. After experiencing it myself, it felt like I was just cheating the game and didn't deserve to finish my first run with it.
To make it more balanced, the wind up should be longer so that you need to time the skill better. Many OP skills has long wind up animation
In felt the same with moonveil
I agree with the Blasphemous Blade, tbh it's one of my favorite greatswords
The scariest thing in a duel in my opinion is dual naginata with sepuku(or blood) and blood hound step
To proc build in one attack, and do upwards of 1k damage sometimes even 12 hundred
And dash around with bhs and never get caught with those stupid i-frames
Honestly the only thing thats worse is using carian retaliation
(definitely a very accurate top 5 imo, great job guys)
Everyone: The nagakiba is great because it's so long
Me: I hate it because it's so long
Been trying out a ghost rider build with almost everything into faith and vigor using the Magma Whip Candelstick... its pretty cool.
How ridiculous is the ROB? Let’s just say most people would frown on you for even equipping it in pvp.
Excellent list man. Radahn’s greatsword, godskin peeler and Fallingstar Beast weapon are my top picks to add to it.
Arcane section could probably have used a runner up seeing how the river of blood nerf is so likely
Eleanora's Poleblade and Reduvia. The latter, in particular, is just insanely good as an early-game weapon.
The question is if the nerf is even going to be that big considering that even though the video says Wing of Astel is the best they still have to but the Moonveil in there because its still so powerful post-nerf.
@@terrantabula9847 They did nerf the Moonveil's special R2 poise damage quite a bit, and that was its biggest advantage over other katanas. So now the question becomes, how do they adjust RoB so it becomes less busted, particularly in PVP.
They could go a few different directions: Nerf the total AR; Nerf the bleed proc; Nerf the range on the L2, or some combination of the three.
I personally think the wisest thing might be to reduce the range of the L2, while increasing FP cost, so it becomes harder to spam in PVP. But I'm not exactly an expert.
@@entroponetics It's biggest advantage is that it's a weapon with natural bleed and a ranged special attack that, if you also hit with the blade, does patently absurd damage. The poise damage was always, imo, just a bonus since most enemies won't survive much longer than if their poise did break.
I feel that the best course of action, which is what Fromsoft might do with a lot of different weapons, is reduce the status buildup. If you go from a weapon that needs two hits to proc a status to three hits, that doesn't seem like much but is actually a big deal. RoB would still be 100% viable in the PvP and PvE, but spammers will have a harder time.
I 100% agree on the Blasphemous blade. It is my favorite weapon in the game. LOVE that weapon. My 2nd favorite weapon is a Dagger, The Black Blade is so freaking OP and so fun to use.
Claymans Harpoon can get 1100 Ar with 12 strength & can also have 4 scaling attributes
I'm interested 🤔
Ah yes. Also the almighty Scholar's Armament scaling Spinning Weapon gigacheese, basically turning it into a glintstone helicopter propeller of death.
For strength I’d also mention the beast mans curved greatsword and beast mans curved sword dual wield they are nasty when made heavy and can be buffed massively by incantations
The sacred relic sword does over 900 damage for me, other weapons are around there too, and when bleed procs with rivers of blood you’re doing damage in the thousands, so that being said I find little reason to use big heavy weapons other than for fun or to hopefully stagger enemies, but even that isn’t necessary
Eleonora’s Poleblade is an awesome weapon. It scales with dexterity and arcane, is fire elemental, and is pretty fun to duel wield with another twin blade. It’s not the most powerful but the Blood dance can stagger almost all enemies.
When a weapon scales with 2 attributes, lets say dex & faith, if i max out Faith and leave dex at wep req. would it be better than to put like 50/50?
@@teexcv It's pretty much always better to have the stat with better scaling on the weapon higher than the other.
Then it depends on the weapon's specs, the maxed out Rivers Of Blood, for example has a B DEX scaling, and a D Arcane scaling, but as the main purpose of this weapon is to spam Corpse Piller, which does crazy blood damage, as well as fire damage, you will get more from it by having higher ARC than DEX.
I struggled with Malenia for a while until I equipped Rivers of Blood. It took less than 30 seconds to beat her on the first occasion with Rivers of Blood.
There's a reason I'm not interested in using it even in pve. Just way too bonkers, bleed in general is.
Love the video! I use Radahn great swords or Ruins great sword & with 55 strength after golden vow, Flame grant strength, & physick buffs I’m at 1352 damage! Was a dex/katana user until I got used to the slower swings & now it’s my go to 100%
no love for the royal greatsword? that thing is extremely powerful in both pve and pvp, also like 1000+ base AR for an int str build
I was eyeballing that weapon. the ash of war is super cool but so dam slow.
its not bad but here the video is about the absolutely best for each stat (of course an opinion as well). I don't disagree with the Gut's greatsword, highly versatile moveset. Royal GS is good too but it's ash of war is mostly PVE unless you're playing vs noobs. It's also very restrictive in that it only starts getting good at high levels due to the scaling on both STR/INT so you need to be high rune level, like mb RL150 for it to be stronger than guts while not losing out on vigor/end etc.
@@juniorelizondo4144 it hits twice and the flight portion has really strong hyper armor like what marikas hammer does, first hit is pinpoint damage but the second is a big explosion, with the right buffs and dual wield, i can have 2 of em with 1600+AR each, a jump attack is deadly.
I suck so bad at the game, without rivers of blood I would not have been able to beat a lot of the bosses without 758384748 tries. I hope it doesn’t get nerfed, well accept for in pvp.
imo the best strength weapon is the bloodhound blade, even tho it requires dex, it has about 901 damage (dex + str) and has a flip/teleport attack thats so fun and stylish to you and its great for breaking poise
Its tier D on rankedboost... Even tho I love this weapon, it has only good jump attack and ash of war, everything else about this weapon is average.
Love the list can’t go wrong with any of these
The Dark Moon great sword is actually the best weapon in the game as far as damage output. Once it's at +10 and you equip the right 4 talismans along with mixed physic. It can one-shot major bosses in the game.
Something like 16k damage. No other weapon comes close.
What build pls cause I have like 60 intelligence and plus 10 and it only does around 780
@@ezeola6348 I'm not sure what build but I don't think it has anything to do with build.
And my initial statement was wrong. It's actually 6k damage. There are 4 talismans and the jelly shield + mixed physic that increases + Rogiers armor increases its output by 135%. You can't do that to any other weapon.
I basically love all these weapons, one weapon I've been enjoying (especially while using the matching armor) is the royal greatsword, I believe it's called. Basically it's blaidds weapon, cant use an aow , but the wolf's assault it comes with is actually really good imo. It has the colossal sword move set and that is really good too!
Gargoyle halberd is the best strength weapon imo due to better swing speed and the duel move set is real nice. Best strength dps. Should check it out!
Try out nightrider glaive, way better
@@Moraalridder123 il definitely check it out but I can't put a ash of war on it. Bet the ability it cool tho
@@capelech9032 yes you can ;-)
You know the game has good staves and sacred seals and bows too? No mention of lion bow with its awesome skill? Price of death staff with the crazy sorcery scaling? Sometimes people forget this isn't just a melee game.
River of Blood's really needs to follow suit with other bleed ash of wars. Make it deal self damage whenever it is used. Also with the Nagakiba, also works really well with double slash and unsheathe.
Now i want a 10 Worst Weapons video
I feel like the Royal Great Sword should have been an honorable mention because of the normal great sword.
Used to do a blaidd cosplay and gotta say his sword hits so hard and just makes you feel strong. Also love the AoW because even if the frost isn’t much the damage is, also for some reason in pvp most people forget about the second burst of ice when you take your sword out of the ground so it’s nice
Im a dex/arc focus pvp build and i run dual scav-swords +24 (still in 1st play through), with either Bloody slash i think the ash of war is and hoarfrost on the other or poison mist on the other. As with the astel blades, the run up lb/l1 combo is ridiculously good at gap close and it hits twice. if you squeeze a crouch in while running before you lb/l1, you get a double upswing which is good for those 2h str guys that like to jump heavy attack.
I hope they dont nerf RoB to bad, I want it to remain viable for those that love its look. I dont even use it but I'll admit one of the coolest designs, se deserve some cool for us non pvpers
Sad to not see a mention of the great stars HP steal but I understand its not the best of the best either lol
There is a big difference between viable and ridiculously overpowered. Moonveil got nerved and is still viable and strong.
@@dusty111 I hope it gets the same treatment, I've seen a lot of games over nerf popular items then it fades into obscurity. Would be a shame for one of the coolest weapon designs in the game, just because it was to powerful at one time. But yes it's hard to argue it doesn't need a nerf, its incredibly strong.
@@gozzilla177 i really like the design too, might have gone for an arkane build at some point but most RoB users tend to only know one button... It might help to raise the FP cost so they won't spam it nonstop. The attack itself is extremely strong but can be dodged, if they spam the weaponart only though it just gets annoying and at some point you will get hit of you don't use bloodhound step
The Nagikiba with Double Slash and blood affinity turns into "Rivers of Blood" but longer AND it has like 115 bleed instead of 75 AND Double slash is exactly the same move set as Rivers of Blood, but on the Nagakiba the reach is better. Tested it on Omens in the underground and its almost exactly the same damage output as rivers of Blood but better reach and it seems to break poise better too
Exactly
For Dex I much prefer the bloodhound's fang. Carried me through many a boss so far. Especially at +10
Not the best
It’s even better if you wield two at one time…buddy of mine gave me another bloodhounds fang from his run through so I got 2 +10…lemme tell ya!! It’s worth it lmao
Man I wanted to try that wep.
@@ChrisBrown-dm1dg just started new game plus. First thing I did was pick up another fang. I love it lol
@@zerox168 it's well worth the smithing stones
The rivers of blood is what sold me on this game I had jus beaten bloodborne and was fond of the chikage mainly the damage you do when you use trick mode or the unsheathe move
What about the ruin greatsword? I've hit 3k on bosses, 1.8k in pvp using weapon art. Plus has hyper armor with AoW so you can lure people in to one shot them lol. Lmk your thoughts
What were your stats/ talismans to get 3k damage. Mine only does a little over 2k with wa basically hitting them point blank with it
I agree, but what was the build for 3k?! I need that
Strength is at 99 int 36. Use shard of Alexander, Flame grant me strength and golden vow. My AR is 1012 w/o the two buffs. With golden vow my AR is 1164. With GV and flame grant me strength my AR is 1372. Use the ash of war point blank and enjoy!
@@brianhusaboe7359 what’s your faith vigior or is this a over level 300 something char?
I run 2 Nagakibas and destroy everybody lol No crazy Magic, no crazy weapon switching, just str8 up SWORDSMEN style. Definitely feel like it’s the best Katana in the game simply because of its “reach”.
How do you have 2 of the same weapons ? Is it only possible if someone drops it for you ?
I remember rivers of blood was the first build video I ever watched of this game before the arcane scaling was even fixed and I loved everything about the weapon, but now that it's been used and abused by every single player in the game after arcane got patched I don't even want to touch it with a 10 foot pole anymore. Kinda sad to see it go this way
I mean it’s obviously gonna get nerfed into oblivion. if u like it, I would use it until they inevitably make it obsolete. That goes with bleed in general (probably) but for sure rivers is getting a huge nerf
@@GB2G nah I'd rather let the plebs spam rivers all day everyday while I actually use interesting weapons and builds
@@death-thresh9548 who the fuck cares about this stupid honor crap in a video game anyway " i feet dirty using a weapon in a video game oh no" might at well use nothing but your fists then
Man eleonoras Poleblade is getting slept on
Rivers of blood can be a very broken sword but you have to keep in mind that not many people enjoy PVP in ER so if they were to nerf rivers of blood just to satisfy people who only play PVP it would be unfortunate really, I just I'm going on my first run and I haven't had the pleasure of trying it yet but it would be very bad if they nerfed it before trying it
Well they nerfed it
Anybody played around with starscourge greatsword? I've fallen in love with that weapon.