@@javier40646 claymore is far more versatile, with a very useful one handed thrust for its strong attack. the zweihander struggles in close corridors and small rooms but outputs big damage and staggers easily. claymore is much more well rounded though :)
@@javier40646 ppl dont realize how absolutely broken Zweihander's moveset in DS1 PVE is. DPS doesnt matter cuz you can literally stunlock everything to de@th with its heavy attack. i literally only used its heavy attacks the whole game in my first blind playthrough and it got me through the whole game. you can get it right at the start of the game and wield even at 16 strength. and i was always using a shield alongside too. never ever use its light attack. if you do then remember you havent trule understood how big zwei's heavy's hitbox and range is. you can use heavy even in the tightesr corridors of the game too unlike the its Light attacks its heavy attacks stunlocks everything (even Smough in his 2nd phase). apart from Seath, Manus and Kalameet all else are gonna get stunlocked to 0 HP its heavy attack has insane range, and even if you somehow miss, its heavy has a huge stun hitbox, so even if you miss all 3/4 guys in front of you will be stunned and give enough time for your animation to finish and stamina to recover. and if you gmget a heavy a hit then you will get a solid couple second of stun on them so stamina doesnt matter either as long as you dont mindlessly spam, i'd suggest you do a limit test to truly realize how massive range its heavy attack has. also if you wanna make the game even more easier, use iron round shield along with Zwei. Even if you have a shield its heavy attack animation stays the same (unlike ds3) and shields are OP in DS1. Iron Round shiled is medium light shield but has the deflection of Greatshields for some reason meaning you dont have to learn parrying SilverKnights and stuff just block and their combo will auto break and you will stun them enough to get a heavy hit in. and then stunlock them to 0 HP. and there you go you just beat the game congrats
@@javier40646As your first playthrough (you probably already finished the game), use whatever you want, explore the game and enjoy without any guides and stuff (Unless you're struggling a lot lol)
@@CaptainCob but the zwei can thrust too, and with way more range (roll attack). True though that one handing the zwei is rarely a good idea, but sheilds are lame soooooo
Lifebunt scythe is my #1. Insane damage + bleed buildup. Just equip the blood shield and bloodbite ring and you never have to worry about causing bleed on yourself
i tried lifehunt without the shield and ring and it was a pain, i had to stop dmging boss so i dont get bleed lol. is it really ok with both of those equipped?
@@martinosvald6711i just did a run with lifehunt and i had ring shield and even armor with good bleed res and it was overkill. The only time i saw the bar break over half was against the four kings and with waiting for the next one to spawn i could just go to inventory and pop a blood blossom. It was so easy.
For me my favorite weapon was the Black Knight Sword, I had no idea it was a chance drop, and I got it from the first Black Knight, used it the entire game.
Just played ds this week. I'm still grasping the mechanics and strategies in fighting lol. I used up all of my bombs and did tons of fall attack just to kill that knight in undead burg. When I got the sword and saw 200+damage, all i felt was bliss hahaha. Good reward for me
Painting Guarding Sword? Iaito?? Liking the selection! I paired the Painting Sword with Gold Tracer for some "no damage" videos, and I was shocked how much fun it actually is. Happy to see it get recognition along with Iaito :)
Crazy you put the Zweihänder at 2. Just did my first blind play through of DS1 and started with the sword and tried to get off it because I thought it wasn’t as good as I thought it was but I kept back to it. For crowds R1. For bosses the lunging R2. Plus you can stagger lock with R2. And that’s it! The simplicity made the weapon super good. But that being said other weapon do have more strength but at what cost? Way more weight, crappier move set, less range…? Zweihänder is life!
You can literally put both Supersmough and Superornstein in an endless loop of stagger just by doing Zweihander running R1s. It comsumes so little stamina it'll almost guaranteed to fully recharge before they could move
it has been more than a decade and pp still dont realize how broken DS1 zweihander is. even in the video he is using it wrong, he is not utilizing its range of its heavy atk. its heavy atk has such a long range and a huge hitbox and even a larger stun hitbox. just press its heavy atk suoer early and you will just stunl0ck everything to 0HP. even if you miss and somehow pressed the Heavy atk too early still the ground atk gonna literally posie break and stun the enemies surrounding and in front of you for a few seconds. and even in the tightest corridors of DS1 you can use its heavy atk without clipping into walls. it is absolutely incredible. and DPS is irrelevant when you can stunlock the likes of Smough's 2nd phase to 0 HP. apart from Kalameet, Seath and Manus all else are gonna stunl0ck to 0 HP. it is incredible. in my first playthrough i never wore armors meaning i didnt use poise(except 4kings), never parried, never learnt dodge timing- i just learned good distancing and spammed zwei's heavy atk till i win the game. it is incredible
Black Knight Greataxe was a delightful surprise for me. I expected it to be like other black knight weapons with slow moveset, but it ended up being much quicker. It has decent scaling unlike other bk weapons. And those heavy attacks are cherry on top. Definetely my favorite strength weapon.
This list is really good, one of the best top 10s I've seen. 👏 Given that these are weapons that I have seen many players in the community use over the years its obvious you have played the game for a long time haha... I have a couple of personal preferences myself but they are more niche options and while some of them are slightly stronger than the weapons in this top 10 they typically have higher stat investments and are harder to fit into a general build so for a top 10 they wouldn't be the best picks. For one preference my favourite weapon in ds1 is the Demons Greataxe with its S scaling in strength it can outdamage every other "Great" weapon including the black knight great axe and Great club and it's buffable... but it's a rare drop, EXTREMELY heavy and has a high Str requirement making its use very difficult for low level character builds. I also love the Greatsword because it has the exact same AR and scaling as the Zweihander and has a surprisingly fast heavy attack with good range and thrust damage that can be boosted with the Leo ring. So It's a bit like the Claymore vs Bastard sword situation where you can pick one or use both, I prefer the thrusting options for a more versatile moveset. My favourite Katana is the washing pole because it has insane reach and can boast the highest AR of any Katana but you have to do a quality build and put more stats in. So I agree with Iato being the best overall. My final preference is Ricards rapier... This is a flashy alternative to the Painting guardian sword. Ricards Rapier is aCtuAlLy the highest dpsing weapon in the game but doesn't have bleed and does thrust instead of slashing damage so will sometimes lose out to the PGS in dps against bosses that bleed or are very weak to slash. Mostly against demons where you will notice RR will do more damage per combo to them but kill slightly slower than PGS because the bleed procs rip 30% of their total HP out. You can also buff RR with the Leo ring for more dps. Being the highest dpsing weapon in the game doesn't come easy though, the RR has an insane stamina requirement and forces you to become planted to the spot whenever you spam your heavy combo. So due to it being much easier to use and doing virtually the same dps I'd say the PGS is more deserving of the top 10 spot. (Everyone still reading this you are awesome, thanks for reading and feel free to tell me your thoughts or favourite weapons below)
@icebox1954 You need to get used to and it's easily the best weapon to burn anything on the path. The only downside is it's weight 22 is hirondous so one is stuxk with havels ring
When talking about the claymore you gotta talk about the combos, I haven’t seen another weapon in the game that rewards mixing R1s and R2s like the claymore does
I got lucky and got a Black Knight Sword off of my first black knight kill. I didn't know how insane this weapon was at the time. To my surprise, NEVER needed another weapon ever again. I tried upgrading many different weapons, but none came close to the BKS' power. Deep into NG+, I'm still rocking it.
great scythe is, to this day, my favourite souls run ever, all games. i also have a soft spot for ricard's in dks1, comboing that r2 with a weapon buff and you have one of the most potent boss killers in the series history.
Man Serpent Greatsword needs a shout-out for the pure strength users out there. 275 base DMG and A Scaling in strength at +15, range and moveset is similar to the claymore (except no thrusting attack), quick attack speed for a sword in this class and it's buffable. Using it on ng+ and it's absolutely shredding.
Would also like to add that the gargoyle halberd adds poison resistance so if you get it before blighttown it can help. If the moonlight greatsword isn't on the ds2 list I will cry. With a magic infusion the damage potential on it is insane. Verty little enemies in that game resist magic damage too.
The gravelord sword is always a good failsafe weapon to get in the early game if you’re fishing for the black knight weapons but they just refuse to drop anything.
Great list Just gonna jump in and self-promote with three of my favourites - the longsword, hand axe and Ricard's Rapier Think of the Balder Sidesword - now imagine a worse move set but better looks and easy availability. That's the longsword, a classic I like to use from start to finish Ricard's Rapier has a very specific niche - the R2's, when buffed with Dark moon or sunlight blade, absolutely melt bosses. Really fun to use Speaking of melting bosses, the Hand Axe let's you achieve a soft 40 str by two-handing it with 27 str, which leaves you enough stats to get your faith to 50, making it an even greater Falchion and DMB/SLB. It's moveset is about as quick
out of all the weapons in the game, my fave probably is the silver knight's straight sword. Not as good as any other weapon on this list but its handsome af
Zweihander was my favorite weapon early in DS1. Later I moved on to the great club, the murakumo (which makes a cool chopping noise when you do a running heavy) and even the great axe, which isn't very good but makes a neat CLANG noise when you hit. I would hold that the Balder side sword is the best dex weapon in the game and also the best weapon for an infused mage weapon due to the devastating poke and low requirements. The Black Knight sword and halberd are so good I will give up on a build and switch to them if I get an early drop. The Black Knight halberd and greatsword are too heavy, have too high a Strength requirement for my taste. The sword and halberd on the other hand have such bad scaling that I just use minimum stats and use the extra stat points for something else.
Painting Guardian is just better. It also gets bleed and it outdamages the gold tracer at 40 dex even without buffing it. Gold tracer does get more range tho
BK Greataxe can drop from the BK in the catacombs, which is fairly early. A little tricky to get since wheel skeletons, but experienced players will find it manageable.
I used the zweihander on my first playthrough and loved it. It was so good that I did a lightning Infusement and stomped Gwynn even though he’s resistant to lightning damage. Just such a good sword that it powered through a disadvantage
Zwei carried me before i got the STR to 2 hand bk halberd, and i still have it leveled for when I reach NG+. The BK halberd might not have good scaling, but it demolishes through everything in the game on a fresh run.
After playing a while with the Zweihander, a favourite of is the Demon Greataxe. The range isn't that bad, and the damage is absurdly good. Pair it with high poise and you're indestructible. And it's buffable
@@as0d251 what build rec would you give to try it. Been wanting to start using more weapons in the games besides the big reliable 3: Zwei, Baemore, & Great Scythe
@@Christmas_Johan I used Black Iron Set, with Havel's Ring and Wolf's Ring, and a Black Knight Shield. For the specs, 30 VIG / 50 END / 50 STR. That's basically it
@@as0d251 The range sucks so bad for Demon's Greataxe. It's the only reason I dropped it. It's atrociously bad range wise. Demon's Greathammer is worse than Great Club as well which sucks because the former looks cool.
After 100%ing Elden Ring i wanted to give a shot to the Dark Souls series, currently at Ds1 (not the remaster, the OG one) i fell in love with Zweihander. Ive been stuck at four knights, heard they were weak to fire, went to clear Izalith, came back with a +5 chaos Zweihander, wiped four king's ass, refused to elaborate. this is my favorite weapon in the game, black knight Sword being 2nd place, crazy dps for my level (70)
I've done a few runs with the furysword and its pretty mediocre compared to the painting sword and the tracer. Its probably the coolest weapon in the game tho so u got style points
I don't know how it is now a days, but back in the pre-Artorias DLC days of Dark Souls my favorite build of all time was: Fully upgraded Steel armor set, Black Iron Greatshield(Artorias Greatshield for PvP), Black Knight Great Axe used one-handed with FAP + Counter Attack rings and Iron Will + Power Within. The one-handed horizontal chop of the Black Knight Great Axe at least pre-expansion used to come out so fast it would trigger the counter-attack proc of the ring after a shield block. Then with Iron Will + Power Within(back when they stacked) it was just free boss kills. You couldn't move at all, but you couldn't be damaged either so it still worked out in your favor.
God the zweihander is just so much *FUN...* there's just something so purely beautiful and glorious about using the downward swing to absolutely flatten enemies and turn them into part of the floor. 1-shots skeletons, 2-shots silver knights and sentinels with only moderate leveling... you can't go wrong with it no matter what.
Does uchigatana land in the honorable mentions? Lol I’m just now doing my first playthrough of DS1 and my first game in the series and so far I’m rocking ugchikatana and grass shield, seems really good combo so far
What do you think about the Titanite Catch Pole? So far it's one of my favorites. Another good one that's overlooked is the Moonlight Butterfly Horn. I wish it's intelligence scaling was an A but it's good damage for now.
My go to would be black knight weapons because they are found early, are fast and easy to upgrade, and are clearly much more powerful than others in the early game. It doesn't matter if some weapons are marginally better once fully upgraded. The convenience and time save of these weapons is unmatched
One of my favorite things to do with the Great Scythe, is going full intelligence, and infusing it with magic, and then enchanted. So you get the best of both worlds with powerful sorceries, and a very reliable and strong weapon
If I would actually use buffs I would definitely use more of these. As it stands, I just love the black knight greataxe with its sheer power! Just wish it had a sweeping attack, then it would be perfect!
One weapon I feel is criminally underrated in this game is the sickle, aka the shotel. One: Pretty good dex scaling at a solid B. Two: lightweight. Three, and most importantly: It’s heavy attack is not only a single overhead strike unlike the other curved swords that are full of flippy shit, but the heavy attack completely bypasses shields, letting you play far more aggressively than you would otherwise and gives a huge middle finger to invading players who just turtle behind their shields.
Balder's side sword is THE shit. The poke reach is amazing, scales A in dex (+15), can be buffed and you can use it with a shield. It's a jack of all trades
I discovered the potential of the first one only last year, when I wanted to try those kind of weapons in particular (so only 3 avaiable), it was incredible, I didn't know that was so good
I just started playing ds1 last week, picked up the Zweihander and went "I mean it's pretty shit in ds3 but it'll do for now as a strength weapon" haven't put it down since and I'm almost 30hrs in at this point. It's kinda nuts.
Currently in my first play through, how do y get all those magic fire and lightning stats for all those weapons and what are those spell things in ur active slots on the bottom left. Also the blades are lighting up just bc of the resins right? Is the resin counted in the stats that you display?
I'd say twinkling titanite upgrades is the biggest edge black knight halberd has over great scythe. U could pretty easily get a maxed out halberd by quelaag while the great scythe will do better damage but only after running the new Londo gauntlet ect. Not to mention newer players will have a pretty rough time in the catacombs if they want the great scythe super early (saying from experience)
For DEX / Pyro Chaos Blade and Lifehunt Scythe with Power Within. Zweihander for STR / Quality Moonlight Greatsword for INT I don't think I have ever build non-hybrid faith character. Anything with DB or SB melts everything especially when paired with PW. If the weapon has bleed... well, even better.
However Dex / Pyro is my absolute favorite. Very versatile and good survivability even at lvl 100 when wearing FAP. That said for PvE only Zweihander is great because you can either flatten or stagger most enemies with R2 or the running attack.
My personal opinion of top ten would be 1. Claymore 2. Gargoyle Halberd 3. Great Scythe 4. Great club or large club 5. Falchion 6. Zweihander 7. Balder side sword or long sword 8. Uchigatana 9. Great axe 10. Mace
I'm surprised you took the Great Club over the Large Club, I basically trivialized the entire game my first playthrough by spamming the Large Club's jump attack, rolling backwards, and repeating. Strongly recommend, it's absurdly good
The reason you give for liking BSS so much is because of the poke, but uchigatana also has poke with 1-handed heavy attack. Perfect katana would be 1 handed heavy thrust (uchigatana), and 2 handed heavy slash (iaito)
@@augustgurtisen I haven't played DS1 in forever but it's definitely time to try it out again. I did use the basic halberd. What about it being bugged in water?
@@gorilla_2282 it's what got me to finish dark souls in the first place. defeated the four kings relatively easy and didn't fell a single time on the "demonic ledge" on londo.
Gravelord Sword is basically the improved drake sword it's a super strong early game weapon however it does fall off hard in the late game since it has E scalings and any elemental infused weapon such as a chaos zwei will vastly outdamage it still an incredibly op weapon that trivializes the early game.
@@triploshadow 460 - 480 physical damage is not terrible and will get you by. Instead of Drake Sword I would compare it to Obsidian Greatsword with the difference that it has better moveset. Both require only 16 STR to 2-hand so you can even use them with DEX builds. Murakumo on the other hand requires 28 STR. Elemental weapons suffer a lot after NG because they do split damage.
Was lucky enough to get the Black Knight sword from the black knight in undead burg in NG, carried me through the game so easily. Playing NG+ role playing as a black knight with the BKGreat Ax. Favorite weapon so far
Your logic about the great scythe also applies to the BKGA, because you can technically get it right at the start, just summon leroy and have him kill the black knight
tbh I think its CRIMINAL you didn't give a honorable mention the Dragon King Greataxe or Obsidian Greatsword. the Dragon King Greataxe while not having a god tier moveset is a very strong and reliable weapon. Sure you need Dragon Scales to upgrade it but the payoff is a really strong weapon that deals insane poise damage on par with the Dragon Tooth. The Obsidian Greatsword as well, you can use all the buffs with it and the R2 even scales with it. Sure the weapon is only accessible towards the end of the game and also only uses Dragon Scales but the damage and versatility of this weapon carried me through to NG+7.
Great list, hard to argue against any of those. No love for the Winged Spear or the Silver Knight Spear though? The Silver Knight Spear does fantastic damage, gets divine without having a faith requirement, and has an excellent moveset. It’s definitely a top 5 weapon for me. And yes, the Great Sycthe is the best weapon in DS1.
Loved the demon great machete If you free aimed it this thing couldn’t be stopped, the rolling r1 had a poke with great range and you could buff it to do some ridiculous damage
Personally I prefer straight swords in all the souls games, and the Sunlight Straight Sword is ridiculously good on the first run in terms of pure damage with a quality build, just wish you could get by less heinous means. The Silver knight straight sword is really good too, it has good range, damage and excellent quality scaling and like the SLSS can be buffed with other elements
Me being stupid not understanding damage multipliers or poise tanking, black knight greataxe was a great help on four kings ng+ runs when I was 100% this back in the day.
Top 3 were perfect. In my personal list right below those would be reinforced club. Love the jumping attack. Why don’t they have Elden Ring weapons with that move set and the great scythe move set?
I got through the whole dark souls 1 with just zweihander +15 on my first playthrough - i killed all the bosses(except for Priscilla, Gwyndolin and dlc bosses) with it and no shield because damn that thing was op
Name a weapon that is isn't op in vanilla game on first ng where all bosses are squishy as hell, you can literally complete the game with a whip without struggle, the real challenge is in DLC
It’s important to consider that +0 Black Knight weapons are equivalent to a +5 normal weapon. Yes, they are very overpowered during the early game. However when upgraded to the max they actually have average in-class damage. Considering this and the extremely high weight of black knight weapons (besides the sword), they are not quite as good as the community makes them out to be.
Those are all great but the best weapon to grab early is the gravelord greatsword. Super easy to get and you don't even have to upgrade it if you do not want to but you might as well pretty sure all you need is 16 str and 13 dex to two hand it. =)
@@skipjacks85 Great Scythe is bad, why? Because it makes me do the same build twenty times in a row as the Death cosplay set is bt Ceaseless boss. It's flaw is that it's too good. It ruins the fun of the game.
As a low dex character, I love my bkh much more than my great scythe, I actually even made the lightning great scythe *because* the dex scaling was useless to me, and... Yeah bkh my beloved
The great club is so ridiculous in pvp you can literally get backstabbed from your sides and so op especially if your connections bad it literally prevents you from also casting spells because you can get backstabbed while in animation and is a one shot
I just platinum today Dark souls and I gotta say all the black knight weapons (except for halberd) are goated, also Claymore for only weighting 6.0 can stagger a lot!
@@vaenii5056 the Ultra is a beast but I still prefer the Halberd. What I meant to say originally was that the BKH was the best weapon in the game IMO not just the best BK weapon.
Maxed out the claymore at least twice. The damage is horrific unless dump large amount of points in dex. If I remember correctly it's good in other games.
Sorry but the bonk stick (Great Club) is totally my favorite weapon. My first playthrough i got that thing and its so fun to just repeatedly bonk things on the head and slam practically 75% of the enemies to the ground. Although I love scythes a lot, I tried to get the one from the dragon lady but didn't get her tail, didn't know there were any other scythe weapons until watching this video
If you're a dex user - regular, if you're an int user - regular + cmw, if you're a faith user - regular + sb, if you're a strength user why the hell are you using it
My favourite weapon was Artorias's Greatsword (holy ver.) I liked the design and that it did more damage to Four Kings which I struggled with, it also helps with skeletons and do not let them get ressurect by necromants, but it's not the best weapon for NG+
Zweihander is a delight. Claymore is a delight. Gargoyle Halberd is a delight. Black Knight Greataxe is a delight. This list doesn't miss.
is better the claymore or the zweihander? im on my first playthrought and don't know nothing
@@javier40646 claymore is far more versatile, with a very useful one handed thrust for its strong attack. the zweihander struggles in close corridors and small rooms but outputs big damage and staggers easily. claymore is much more well rounded though :)
@@javier40646
ppl dont realize how absolutely broken Zweihander's moveset in DS1 PVE is. DPS doesnt matter cuz
you can literally stunlock everything to de@th with its heavy attack.
i literally only used its heavy attacks the whole game in my first blind playthrough and it got me through the whole game. you can get it right at the start of the game and wield even at 16 strength. and i was always using a shield alongside too.
never ever use its light attack. if you do then remember you havent trule understood how big zwei's heavy's hitbox and range is. you can use heavy even in the tightesr corridors of the game too unlike the its Light attacks
its heavy attacks stunlocks everything (even Smough in his 2nd phase). apart from Seath, Manus and Kalameet all else are gonna get stunlocked to 0 HP
its heavy attack has insane range, and even if you somehow miss, its heavy has a huge stun hitbox, so even if you miss all 3/4 guys in front of you will be stunned and give enough time for your animation to finish and stamina to recover. and if you gmget a heavy a hit then you will get a solid couple second of stun on them so stamina doesnt matter either as long as you dont mindlessly spam, i'd suggest you do a limit test to truly realize how massive range its heavy attack has.
also if you wanna make the game even more easier, use iron round shield along with Zwei. Even if you have a shield its heavy attack animation stays the same (unlike ds3) and shields are OP in DS1. Iron Round shiled is medium light shield but has the deflection of Greatshields for some reason meaning you dont have to learn parrying SilverKnights and stuff just block and their combo will auto break and you will stun them enough to get a heavy hit in. and then stunlock them to 0 HP. and there you go you just beat the game congrats
@@javier40646As your first playthrough (you probably already finished the game), use whatever you want, explore the game and enjoy without any guides and stuff (Unless you're struggling a lot lol)
@@CaptainCob but the zwei can thrust too, and with way more range (roll attack). True though that one handing the zwei is rarely a good idea, but sheilds are lame soooooo
Where is the broken straight sword
I’m calling lenny rn 😤
its literally broken
@@ithinksomethingisburningwhy you calling me😞
He wanted variety and if he allowed the broken straight sword it would take up all 10 slots.
Too powerful
Lifebunt scythe is my #1. Insane damage + bleed buildup. Just equip the blood shield and bloodbite ring and you never have to worry about causing bleed on yourself
i tried lifehunt without the shield and ring and it was a pain, i had to stop dmging boss so i dont get bleed lol. is it really ok with both of those equipped?
@@martinosvald6711i just did a run with lifehunt and i had ring shield and even armor with good bleed res and it was overkill. The only time i saw the bar break over half was against the four kings and with waiting for the next one to spawn i could just go to inventory and pop a blood blossom. It was so easy.
Gives inhumane DPS
I imagine it's a worse option though due to the opportunity cost of giving those slots up just to deal with the bleed
Exactly.
Balder Swag Sword, how I miss thee.
I'm trying to farm it rn, 1% drop chance is kind of wild even with the gold serpent ring and humanity...
@@thex6992always took me 20-30 runs , just hang in there
I got it first drop mad
Scythe was crazy just running attack into a heavy and just look at that health bar drain😮
For me my favorite weapon was the Black Knight Sword, I had no idea it was a chance drop, and I got it from the first Black Knight, used it the entire game.
Same lol carried me all the way to the tomb of the giants so far.
Same, that thing carries
It carries but it dosent teach you how to build a character and it dosent teach you about buffs
@@Swayz790 True. For example, +15 Claymore with buff is better than +5 black knight sword. And the latter is not that effective in ng+.
Just played ds this week. I'm still grasping the mechanics and strategies in fighting lol. I used up all of my bombs and did tons of fall attack just to kill that knight in undead burg. When I got the sword and saw 200+damage, all i felt was bliss hahaha. Good reward for me
Painting Guarding Sword? Iaito?? Liking the selection! I paired the Painting Sword with Gold Tracer for some "no damage" videos, and I was shocked how much fun it actually is. Happy to see it get recognition along with Iaito :)
one of the best lists ive seen, you can tell youve used all of these extensively, good shit
Crazy you put the Zweihänder at 2.
Just did my first blind play through of DS1 and started with the sword and tried to get off it because I thought it wasn’t as good as I thought it was but I kept back to it.
For crowds R1. For bosses the lunging R2. Plus you can stagger lock with R2. And that’s it! The simplicity made the weapon super good. But that being said other weapon do have more strength but at what cost? Way more weight, crappier move set, less range…?
Zweihänder is life!
You can literally put both Supersmough and Superornstein in an endless loop of stagger just by doing Zweihander running R1s. It comsumes so little stamina it'll almost guaranteed to fully recharge before they could move
Ever try the Great Scythe?
Giantdad
it has been more than a decade and pp still dont realize how broken DS1 zweihander is.
even in the video he is using it wrong, he is not utilizing its range of its heavy atk. its heavy atk has such a long range and a huge hitbox and even a larger stun hitbox. just press its heavy atk suoer early and you will just stunl0ck everything to 0HP. even if you miss and somehow pressed the Heavy atk too early still the ground atk gonna literally posie break and stun the enemies surrounding and in front of you for a few seconds. and even in the tightest corridors of DS1 you can use its heavy atk without clipping into walls. it is absolutely incredible. and DPS is irrelevant when you can stunlock the likes of Smough's 2nd phase to 0 HP. apart from Kalameet, Seath and Manus all else are gonna stunl0ck to 0 HP. it is incredible.
in my first playthrough i never wore armors meaning i didnt use poise(except 4kings),
never parried, never learnt dodge timing- i just learned good distancing and spammed zwei's heavy atk till i win the game. it is incredible
@@btchiaintkidding7837Everyone knows it's broken, what are u even talking about lmao
Black Knight Greataxe was a delightful surprise for me. I expected it to be like other black knight weapons with slow moveset, but it ended up being much quicker. It has decent scaling unlike other bk weapons. And those heavy attacks are cherry on top. Definetely my favorite strength weapon.
This list is really good, one of the best top 10s I've seen. 👏
Given that these are weapons that I have seen many players in the community use over the years its obvious you have played the game for a long time haha...
I have a couple of personal preferences myself but they are more niche options and while some of them are slightly stronger than the weapons in this top 10 they typically have higher stat investments and are harder to fit into a general build so for a top 10 they wouldn't be the best picks.
For one preference my favourite weapon in ds1 is the Demons Greataxe with its S scaling in strength it can outdamage every other "Great" weapon including the black knight great axe and Great club and it's buffable... but it's a rare drop, EXTREMELY heavy and has a high Str requirement making its use very difficult for low level character builds.
I also love the Greatsword because it has the exact same AR and scaling as the Zweihander and has a surprisingly fast heavy attack with good range and thrust damage that can be boosted with the Leo ring.
So It's a bit like the Claymore vs Bastard sword situation where you can pick one or use both, I prefer the thrusting options for a more versatile moveset.
My favourite Katana is the washing pole because it has insane reach and can boast the highest AR of any Katana but you have to do a quality build and put more stats in. So I agree with Iato being the best overall.
My final preference is Ricards rapier...
This is a flashy alternative to the Painting guardian sword.
Ricards Rapier is aCtuAlLy the highest dpsing weapon in the game but doesn't have bleed and does thrust instead of slashing damage so will sometimes lose out to the PGS in dps against bosses that bleed or are very weak to slash.
Mostly against demons where you will notice RR will do more damage per combo to them but kill slightly slower than PGS because the bleed procs rip 30% of their total HP out.
You can also buff RR with the Leo ring for more dps.
Being the highest dpsing weapon in the game doesn't come easy though, the RR has an insane stamina requirement and forces you to become planted to the spot whenever you spam your heavy combo.
So due to it being much easier to use and doing virtually the same dps I'd say the PGS is more deserving of the top 10 spot.
(Everyone still reading this you are awesome, thanks for reading and feel free to tell me your thoughts or favourite weapons below)
Bro what is the best weapon for faith build? Im new to this game and i just arrived to anor londo and i use astora straight sword+5
Demon's Greataxe sucks. It has great scaling but the range is absolutely horrendous and it's slow as well. Great Club is far better.
@icebox1954 You need to get used to and it's easily the best weapon to burn anything on the path. The only downside is it's weight 22 is hirondous so one is stuxk with havels ring
@@cratos900 you can take the Havel ring off? 😨😂
Man-Serpent Greatsword is my number 1 for a strength build, I always farm for it as soon as I open Sen's.
It's like using a cheat code 😁
Thanks for giving us details too. I knew the uchi had more damage but didn’t know how much necessarily so thanks for including that 😊
When talking about the claymore you gotta talk about the combos, I haven’t seen another weapon in the game that rewards mixing R1s and R2s like the claymore does
I got lucky and got a Black Knight Sword off of my first black knight kill. I didn't know how insane this weapon was at the time. To my surprise, NEVER needed another weapon ever again. I tried upgrading many different weapons, but none came close to the BKS' power. Deep into NG+, I'm still rocking it.
great scythe is, to this day, my favourite souls run ever, all games. i also have a soft spot for ricard's in dks1, comboing that r2 with a weapon buff and you have one of the most potent boss killers in the series history.
I was able to breeze through the game all the way to playthrough 6, mostly using the zweihander. This weapon is no joke!
Reinforced Club is also quite strong, super low requirements, good damage and bleed.
Man Serpent Greatsword needs a shout-out for the pure strength users out there. 275 base DMG and A Scaling in strength at +15, range and moveset is similar to the claymore (except no thrusting attack), quick attack speed for a sword in this class and it's buffable. Using it on ng+ and it's absolutely shredding.
Would also like to add that the gargoyle halberd adds poison resistance so if you get it before blighttown it can help.
If the moonlight greatsword isn't on the ds2 list I will cry. With a magic infusion the damage potential on it is insane. Verty little enemies in that game resist magic damage too.
DS2 has loads of broken weapons tho, like the ice rapier, santier's spear, Yorgh spear, crypt sword and ect.
@@triploshadow That's true, there is a lot of really fun and strong weapons in that game.
Bruuuuuhhh who actually cares about poison in blighttown
@@triploshadowwhich fun strong ds2 weapons can you get early? Want to plan my build
@@keatontatooles223 Santier spear.
Nice list,I love the Gravelord sword.
Same here
You can get it right from the start. If you get power within and the ring you can one shot any early boss 😊
The gravelord sword is always a good failsafe weapon to get in the early game if you’re fishing for the black knight weapons but they just refuse to drop anything.
That thing is so underrated
Great list
Just gonna jump in and self-promote with three of my favourites - the longsword, hand axe and Ricard's Rapier
Think of the Balder Sidesword - now imagine a worse move set but better looks and easy availability. That's the longsword, a classic I like to use from start to finish
Ricard's Rapier has a very specific niche - the R2's, when buffed with Dark moon or sunlight blade, absolutely melt bosses. Really fun to use
Speaking of melting bosses, the Hand Axe let's you achieve a soft 40 str by two-handing it with 27 str, which leaves you enough stats to get your faith to 50, making it an even greater Falchion and DMB/SLB. It's moveset is about as quick
out of all the weapons in the game, my fave probably is the silver knight's straight sword. Not as good as any other weapon on this list but its handsome af
Yeah right, it's really strong if you get it in early game. But it sadly gets outscaled in endgame
Zweihander was my favorite weapon early in DS1. Later I moved on to the great club, the murakumo (which makes a cool chopping noise when you do a running heavy) and even the great axe, which isn't very good but makes a neat CLANG noise when you hit. I would hold that the Balder side sword is the best dex weapon in the game and also the best weapon for an infused mage weapon due to the devastating poke and low requirements. The Black Knight sword and halberd are so good I will give up on a build and switch to them if I get an early drop. The Black Knight halberd and greatsword are too heavy, have too high a Strength requirement for my taste. The sword and halberd on the other hand have such bad scaling that I just use minimum stats and use the extra stat points for something else.
honestly i believe gold tracer should be on the list it destroys whats left of ng and ng+ with no effort basically, great video tho
Painting Guardian is just better. It also gets bleed and it outdamages the gold tracer at 40 dex even without buffing it. Gold tracer does get more range tho
@@youwy + gold tracers are major fashion souls, the effect just looks sexy af
It also punishes people who constantly have there shield up
Plus how are you going to pass on the lefthand of the only real dual weilding weapon set in the game .
i love that you show the same enemies and they’re all specific groups or classes of them
BK Greataxe can drop from the BK in the catacombs, which is fairly early. A little tricky to get since wheel skeletons, but experienced players will find it manageable.
my boy Paladin Leroy makes the job xD BK greataxe lvl before taurus demon is funny, surprising low level invaders
I used the zweihander on my first playthrough and loved it. It was so good that I did a lightning Infusement and stomped Gwynn even though he’s resistant to lightning damage. Just such a good sword that it powered through a disadvantage
Used the regular halberd for most of my playthrough that thing is a beast
Zwei carried me before i got the STR to 2 hand bk halberd, and i still have it leveled for when I reach NG+. The BK halberd might not have good scaling, but it demolishes through everything in the game on a fresh run.
Balder Swag Sword got me through my first ever Dark Souls playthrough back in 2011. Was also a very fun weapon in PvP
I played it first in 2002. I'm a bigger fan than you.
@@jarlwhiterun7478 cringe, I played it on release in 2026
Note about the Zweihander: you can stun lock super Smaugh by spamming the heavy attack.
After playing a while with the Zweihander, a favourite of is the Demon Greataxe. The range isn't that bad, and the damage is absurdly good. Pair it with high poise and you're indestructible. And it's buffable
I suppose I should give it another try, but so far Demon weapons have been some of my least favourite
@@Christmas_Johan understandable ! Some friends warned me about the range of this weapon but I find it comfortable to use
@@as0d251 what build rec would you give to try it. Been wanting to start using more weapons in the games besides the big reliable 3: Zwei, Baemore, & Great Scythe
@@Christmas_Johan I used Black Iron Set, with Havel's Ring and Wolf's Ring, and a Black Knight Shield. For the specs, 30 VIG / 50 END / 50 STR. That's basically it
@@as0d251 The range sucks so bad for Demon's Greataxe. It's the only reason I dropped it. It's atrociously bad range wise.
Demon's Greathammer is worse than Great Club as well which sucks because the former looks cool.
ds2 top 10:
santier spear
curved dragon greatsword
zhweiboi
drake greatsword
dragon axe (acquired thru pvp club)
can’t remember any others
Loyce Greatsword. Best moveset of any Greatsword in any fromsoftware game.
Good in pve
Absolute monster in pvp
Crypt Blacksword 🥵🥹😏
Red iron twinblade
Dragonbone Fist powerstanced was cool as fuck
Ice Rapier:
After 100%ing Elden Ring i wanted to give a shot to the Dark Souls series, currently at Ds1 (not the remaster, the OG one) i fell in love with Zweihander. Ive been stuck at four knights, heard they were weak to fire, went to clear Izalith, came back with a +5 chaos Zweihander, wiped four king's ass, refused to elaborate. this is my favorite weapon in the game, black knight Sword being 2nd place, crazy dps for my level (70)
Havent used a lot all of these weapons, my fav sword is big dragon sword, completed ds on ng+, ng+1 and dlc with it
No Quelaags Fury Sword?
The ultimate R1 spam weapon
Split fire damage, meh scaling, and is competing with DS1's most broken weapons like buffed falchion/painting guardian sword and gold tracer
I've done a few runs with the furysword and its pretty mediocre compared to the painting sword and the tracer. Its probably the coolest weapon in the game tho so u got style points
@@gmuta1 I always thought the damage was pretty good at 40 humanity
I don't know how it is now a days, but back in the pre-Artorias DLC days of Dark Souls my favorite build of all time was: Fully upgraded Steel armor set, Black Iron Greatshield(Artorias Greatshield for PvP), Black Knight Great Axe used one-handed with FAP + Counter Attack rings and Iron Will + Power Within. The one-handed horizontal chop of the Black Knight Great Axe at least pre-expansion used to come out so fast it would trigger the counter-attack proc of the ring after a shield block. Then with Iron Will + Power Within(back when they stacked) it was just free boss kills. You couldn't move at all, but you couldn't be damaged either so it still worked out in your favor.
Love this content, keep it up man
Glad to see new video's still being made
God the zweihander is just so much *FUN...* there's just something so purely beautiful and glorious about using the downward swing to absolutely flatten enemies and turn them into part of the floor. 1-shots skeletons, 2-shots silver knights and sentinels with only moderate leveling... you can't go wrong with it no matter what.
Does uchigatana land in the honorable mentions? Lol I’m just now doing my first playthrough of DS1 and my first game in the series and so far I’m rocking ugchikatana and grass shield, seems really good combo so far
What do you think about the Titanite Catch Pole? So far it's one of my favorites. Another good one that's overlooked is the Moonlight Butterfly Horn. I wish it's intelligence scaling was an A but it's good damage for now.
Valkyries rapier is so underrated. My dex/int build really just swept most of the game in NG+ with that weapon. Highly recommend
I used stone greatsword throughout my entire playthrough. I think it's great.
My go to would be black knight weapons because they are found early, are fast and easy to upgrade, and are clearly much more powerful than others in the early game. It doesn't matter if some weapons are marginally better once fully upgraded. The convenience and time save of these weapons is unmatched
We know the great scythe is better that the Zweihander, but is it better than THE BASS CANNON?
Currently using the Claymore as my main weapon; it's +12 now, and I'm loving it.
One of my favorite things to do with the Great Scythe, is going full intelligence, and infusing it with magic, and then enchanted. So you get the best of both worlds with powerful sorceries, and a very reliable and strong weapon
Haven’t tried the great club or the PGS yet, but each of these others have carried me through an entire playthrough
If I would actually use buffs I would definitely use more of these. As it stands, I just love the black knight greataxe with its sheer power! Just wish it had a sweeping attack, then it would be perfect!
Dude 15 int + gmw + oolacile ivory staff, 200 pure magic damage for minimal investments
One weapon I feel is criminally underrated in this game is the sickle, aka the shotel. One: Pretty good dex scaling at a solid B. Two: lightweight. Three, and most importantly: It’s heavy attack is not only a single overhead strike unlike the other curved swords that are full of flippy shit, but the heavy attack completely bypasses shields, letting you play far more aggressively than you would otherwise and gives a huge middle finger to invading players who just turtle behind their shields.
Balder's side sword is THE shit. The poke reach is amazing, scales A in dex (+15), can be buffed and you can use it with a shield. It's a jack of all trades
I discovered the potential of the first one only last year, when I wanted to try those kind of weapons in particular (so only 3 avaiable), it was incredible, I didn't know that was so good
Love this series would love to see you do pvp weapons next
My favorites in DS1 are the Baldur Side Sword or Uchigatana. Pump 40 dex, 50 Faith with sunlight or Darkmoon blade and you will just shred anything.
I just started playing ds1 last week, picked up the Zweihander and went "I mean it's pretty shit in ds3 but it'll do for now as a strength weapon" haven't put it down since and I'm almost 30hrs in at this point. It's kinda nuts.
honorable mention to the Reinforced Club and the Blacksmith Giant Hammer
the best weapons for a SL1 run by far
Currently in my first play through, how do y get all those magic fire and lightning stats for all those weapons and what are those spell things in ur active slots on the bottom left. Also the blades are lighting up just bc of the resins right? Is the resin counted in the stats that you display?
you must kill gywndolin in anor londo and have 30 faith. Ppl usually skip this because of the high faith requirement and use it in ng+ instead
For me falchion is an underrated weapon, great damage, speed and insane dps when you use it with two hands.
I'd say twinkling titanite upgrades is the biggest edge black knight halberd has over great scythe. U could pretty easily get a maxed out halberd by quelaag while the great scythe will do better damage but only after running the new Londo gauntlet ect. Not to mention newer players will have a pretty rough time in the catacombs if they want the great scythe super early (saying from experience)
For DEX / Pyro Chaos Blade and Lifehunt Scythe with Power Within.
Zweihander for STR / Quality
Moonlight Greatsword for INT
I don't think I have ever build non-hybrid faith character. Anything with DB or SB melts everything especially when paired with PW. If the weapon has bleed... well, even better.
However Dex / Pyro is my absolute favorite. Very versatile and good survivability even at lvl 100 when wearing FAP.
That said for PvE only Zweihander is great because you can either flatten or stagger most enemies with R2 or the running attack.
Because of this video I'm gonna do a great scythe run
My personal opinion of top ten would be
1. Claymore
2. Gargoyle Halberd
3. Great Scythe
4. Great club or large club
5. Falchion
6. Zweihander
7. Balder side sword or long sword
8. Uchigatana
9. Great axe
10. Mace
You're missing the BK Sword.
Great video. Thx for the info
I'm surprised you took the Great Club over the Large Club, I basically trivialized the entire game my first playthrough by spamming the Large Club's jump attack, rolling backwards, and repeating. Strongly recommend, it's absurdly good
The reason you give for liking BSS so much is because of the poke, but uchigatana also has poke with 1-handed heavy attack. Perfect katana would be 1 handed heavy thrust (uchigatana), and 2 handed heavy slash (iaito)
I feel great that the first time I ever played dark souls 1 and didn't really know what I was doing I went with a halberd!
Can't go wrong with the basic halberd in DS1, plus it's bugged in water- try it out in blight town
@@augustgurtisen I haven't played DS1 in forever but it's definitely time to try it out again. I did use the basic halberd. What about it being bugged in water?
I went Full Havel Armor, shield set with the Dragon Tooth. FULL POISE baby!
imagine wasting two ring slots just to wear armour that is useless in ng+ (this comment was written by darkwood ring gang)
@@gorilla_2282 it's what got me to finish dark souls in the first place. defeated the four kings relatively easy and didn't fell a single time on the "demonic ledge" on londo.
@@somedude96I mean face rolling is a really fun tactic and it's almost mandatory if you use heavy equipment like zweihander
Gravelord sword is underrated, could get it very early and it farts out poison cloud with the heavy attack.
Yeah it also looks cool and has a decent moveset.
Gravelord Sword is basically the improved drake sword it's a super strong early game weapon however it does fall off hard in the late game since it has E scalings and any elemental infused weapon such as a chaos zwei will vastly outdamage it still an incredibly op weapon that trivializes the early game.
@@triploshadow 460 - 480 physical damage is not terrible and will get you by. Instead of Drake Sword I would compare it to Obsidian Greatsword with the difference that it has better moveset.
Both require only 16 STR to 2-hand so you can even use them with DEX builds. Murakumo on the other hand requires 28 STR.
Elemental weapons suffer a lot after NG because they do split damage.
Just played Dark Souls 1 for the first Time and found the Zweihänder very early and used it my hole run😂 love that weapon
Was lucky enough to get the Black Knight sword from the black knight in undead burg in NG, carried me through the game so easily. Playing NG+ role playing as a black knight with the BKGreat Ax. Favorite weapon so far
Great video bro!
"shiva the deceased" lmao
Your logic about the great scythe also applies to the BKGA, because you can technically get it right at the start, just summon leroy and have him kill the black knight
Zweihander... Oh the fun times of pancaking enemies! Why can't we have that back?!
It is in Elden ring
balance.
i was depressed jumping into ds3 after ds1 seeing they ruined Zwei's heavy. they balanced it i actually had to learn the game lmao
tbh I think its CRIMINAL you didn't give a honorable mention the Dragon King Greataxe or Obsidian Greatsword. the Dragon King Greataxe while not having a god tier moveset is a very strong and reliable weapon. Sure you need Dragon Scales to upgrade it but the payoff is a really strong weapon that deals insane poise damage on par with the Dragon Tooth. The Obsidian Greatsword as well, you can use all the buffs with it and the R2 even scales with it. Sure the weapon is only accessible towards the end of the game and also only uses Dragon Scales but the damage and versatility of this weapon carried me through to NG+7.
Great list, hard to argue against any of those. No love for the Winged Spear or the Silver Knight Spear though? The Silver Knight Spear does fantastic damage, gets divine without having a faith requirement, and has an excellent moveset. It’s definitely a top 5 weapon for me. And yes, the Great Sycthe is the best weapon in DS1.
Sweet I just started the game and got the 6:54 weapon. Feels very nice :)
When it comes to all these PVE related vids, do you assess it at a certain Max soul level?
Most of it is based on a regular NG playthrough. I don't value NG+ as much
Loved the demon great machete
If you free aimed it this thing couldn’t be stopped, the rolling r1 had a poke with great range and you could buff it to do some ridiculous damage
Personally I prefer straight swords in all the souls games, and the Sunlight Straight Sword is ridiculously good on the first run in terms of pure damage with a quality build, just wish you could get by less heinous means.
The Silver knight straight sword is really good too, it has good range, damage and excellent quality scaling and like the SLSS can be buffed with other elements
Me being stupid not understanding damage multipliers or poise tanking, black knight greataxe was a great help on four kings ng+ runs when I was 100% this back in the day.
In your opinion what would you rank gravelord sword at?
don't forget how good the Great scythe is at dead angling literally doesnt matter if anything blocks u u can just dead angle it
Top 3 were perfect. In my personal list right below those would be reinforced club. Love the jumping attack. Why don’t they have Elden Ring weapons with that move set and the great scythe move set?
I got through the whole dark souls 1 with just zweihander +15 on my first playthrough - i killed all the bosses(except for Priscilla, Gwyndolin and dlc bosses) with it and no shield because damn that thing was op
Name a weapon that is isn't op in vanilla game on first ng where all bosses are squishy as hell, you can literally complete the game with a whip without struggle, the real challenge is in DLC
Gold tracer goes crazy
It’s important to consider that +0 Black Knight weapons are equivalent to a +5 normal weapon.
Yes, they are very overpowered during the early game. However when upgraded to the max they actually have average in-class damage.
Considering this and the extremely high weight of black knight weapons (besides the sword), they are not quite as good as the community makes them out to be.
Those are all great but the best weapon to grab early is the gravelord greatsword. Super easy to get and you don't even have to upgrade it if you do not want to but you might as well pretty sure all you need is 16 str and 13 dex to two hand it. =)
I mean the great scythe which is #1 on his list is also in the catacombs so you can get just as early.
@@skipjacks85 Great Scythe is bad, why? Because it makes me do the same build twenty times in a row as the Death cosplay set is bt Ceaseless boss. It's flaw is that it's too good. It ruins the fun of the game.
@@icebox1954 room temp IQ
Impressive to see the Baller Swag Sword not in 1st place, kudos for variety.
the heavy attack is why I personnaly prefer the uchigatana. As it's a thrust attack it doesn't get stuck in walls
As a low dex character, I love my bkh much more than my great scythe, I actually even made the lightning great scythe *because* the dex scaling was useless to me, and... Yeah bkh my beloved
What element did you infuse the weapons with?
The great club is so ridiculous in pvp you can literally get backstabbed from your sides and so op especially if your connections bad it literally prevents you from also casting spells because you can get backstabbed while in animation and is a one shot
I just platinum today Dark souls and I gotta say all the black knight weapons (except for halberd) are goated, also Claymore for only weighting 6.0 can stagger a lot!
The halberd is the best BK weapon? C’mon dude.
@@skipjacks85 and all the others suck lmao. BKH is the only BK weapon I would use.
@@vaenii5056 the Ultra is a beast but I still prefer the Halberd. What I meant to say originally was that the BKH was the best weapon in the game IMO not just the best BK weapon.
Maxed out the claymore at least twice. The damage is horrific unless dump large amount of points in dex. If I remember correctly it's good in other games.
Sorry but the bonk stick (Great Club) is totally my favorite weapon. My first playthrough i got that thing and its so fun to just repeatedly bonk things on the head and slam practically 75% of the enemies to the ground. Although I love scythes a lot, I tried to get the one from the dragon lady but didn't get her tail, didn't know there were any other scythe weapons until watching this video
What's the best infusion for the great scythe?
If you're a dex user - regular, if you're an int user - regular + cmw, if you're a faith user - regular + sb, if you're a strength user why the hell are you using it
My favourite weapon was Artorias's Greatsword (holy ver.) I liked the design and that it did more damage to Four Kings which I struggled with, it also helps with skeletons and do not let them get ressurect by necromants, but it's not the best weapon for NG+