I have a +3 Bastard Sword that's serving me pretty well. I'm saving my titanite mostly until I get a better sense of how upgrading will go. I do like that upgrading shields increases resistances and stability.

@ethanielrain: How do you get it? Is it a boss soul trade?

+4 Falchion. Best dex weapon I could find early on. Good for getting a strike in and rolling back, as well as chaining together slashes when you get an opening. Also you can slash from either side based on R1/R2 to help get around shields. And I was able to use it to take down a super bitch of a boss, so I'm very attached to it now.

I've never liked poking/thrust weapons, so the rapiers and swords that have an R2 thrust attack are out.

@deathpooky: Where do you find the falchion? I'm pretty early on and want to find a good dex weapon.

Bastard Sword. Love the rolling attack and the quick followup.

@jjbsterling: Pretty sure I bought it from the blacksmith, so you have to unlock that first.

@fredchuckdave: What do you mean by this? Are the enchants interchangeable? Temporary? No holy and occult enchants?

@bnutz2k: The enchanting system is separate from the basic reinforcement system; one doesn't cancel out the other.

Oh, sweet!

I think Adaptability also affects this. Adaptability increases your agility, which may also lower the fall damage slightly. The guide is very vague about some of these things. I've been reading over the first chapter that goes over stats and mechanics. And they don't fully explain a lot of what Adaptability does. They just say "and it does other things". Well wtf are those other things?

I am now rolling with a +6 lighting ultra greatsword. Holly damage batman!

Been using the Fire Sword upgraded to +6 I wanna say. Also have Heide's Sword upgraded to +4 or so. I'm working my way towards using the Drangelic Sword.

Using the Heide's Sword you get off of the White Knight in the Forest of Fallen Giants courtyard. Not really digging the moveset though. Hoping to find a greatsword or ultra greatsword soon.

I'm trying to make a faith character, which makes me nervous about putting too many points into STR or DEX. Just want to find a weapon I like and meet those requirements.

@cyrus_saren: are you getting a bonus from using them together? I'm just two handing the falchion.

@lukeweizer: Trust me when I say the moveset is damn good, didn't think so at first but it really, really shines against almost every boss.

The Heide's Sword? What about it do you like? The swing animation is kind of funky, though I do still like it fine.

So I wanna kill that knight? He seems so peaceful and hasn't bothered attacking me. Not very chatty, though. :\

Vinny and Brad were totally spot on in the podcast when they said that weapon variety is really important. I'm really early in the game (just beat The Pursuer) I'm rocking a +2 Bastard Sword and a +1 Club. My god that club makes a difference when dealing with Turtle Knights

I am playing with the Dragonrider's Halberd at the moment. It is a vicious weapon if you are light enough to roll around and got some good stamina. I have been getting lucky with my stone trade ins at the nest and got a few upgrade items for it, and have it at +2 now.

I'm still way in the early game, but I've mostly been using my Mace. I do bring along the Channeller's Trident for co-op, although I have no idea if that buff actually works.

@fredchuckdave: I'm not a huge fan of the upswing on the light attack or the short range. Strong attack is good though.

My main character's a dex build, been using the rapier for now and it's been serving me well thus far. Have a shortbow too for pulls or to dish out a little extra medium-range damage.

Does anyone know where to find a claymore? Pretty deep in and haven't found one yet or don't know if someone sells one.

Found a Dragonslayers Crescent Axe and that has been doing quite well for me so far. I'm liking it way more than the Greatsword.

I was using the Heide sword for awhile, but the reach on that thing is just too short and it was causing me problems with some of these bosses with massive reach and brief vulnerability windows. I have since switched to the Halberd. Much better reach and a better moveset IMO, especially now that I have enough strength to equip it one handed alongside a Greatshield.

My maaaaaaaan. I'm using that exact same gear. Can't wait to have a better sword/dagger so I can go around being a deadly mage.

Running around with the Pursuer Ultra Greatsword and the Dragonrider Greatshield and of course The Lost Sinner set to fill out the boss set for now.

So I found the claymore, was wondering if anyone knows if there is a shop that sells fragrant branch of yore, I could of sworn that I saw one for 7500.

I was using a falcion + 4 for my DEX build but I was getting steam rolled by the Pursuer and found my DEX build run a lot tougher in DSII as I couldn't just get a katana from the beginning of the game lol. I may turn the class into a duel wielder once I get a better handle on how the game plays.

I made a new str build char with heavy armor and a big ass shield with the Heidi Knight Sword for now and finding the game a lot more manageable now.

Yeah, I just got my stats to where I can go into power stance. I think I'm doing more damage now than just two handing one sword.

@lukeweizer: @kishinfoulux: 2 hand for wide arcs, 1 hand for a very fast swing that connects on long chains; strong attack for variety. Recovery on the one hand swing is miniscule and thus extremely safe. Very stamina efficient.

In the Shaded Woods, Ruined Fork Bonfire. It's pretty much right on the main path, being guarded by an enemy that was the boss of the pirate ship in the wharf - can't miss it, once you get there (kill the lost sinner, use the yew branch to unpetrify the stone statue lady on path from Mejula).

@ethanielrain: Thank you kindly!

I've been using the gyrm axe, and I really like it, but for some reason if I'm holding back and attack my character turns all the way around and hits the ground behind instead of what I'm targeting, is this a bug? Or just something I have to get used to with bigger weapons? Its really strange having your character hit in the direction you're holding rather than what your locked onto.

I'm still looking for something that feels like quelaags fury sword. That ended up being my favorite weapon. Using mainly fire sword+5. It's fine but run into a few guys who don't care about fire. It also doesn't hit THAT hard or swing THAT fast. I have two respecs so if I find something I like, respec I will.

Dual wielding ultra greatswords, it's very hard to see around my character.

@kerse: I believe that's just how very large weapons work now; which technically improves them because for the most part you don't want to lock on with huge, sweeping weapons. Takes a bit to get used to though.

@fredchuckdave: Yeah I can understand it for the sweeps, but this axe does chopping attacks, I'm getting used to it though, just gotta let go of the left stick right before I attack.

I just traded a boss soul for a great weapon, but its not as good yet as my +7. Pretty close. But to upgrade it I have to look up where to get the material. Its something I have yet to run into yet. I'm hoping it turns out to be a beast.

Switched over to the Drangleic Sword, now that I have the stats to properly wield it. Pretty good and it's barely upgraded. Gonna be monstrous when I take it further. For a great sword it's really not that slow. Also nice moveset.

@sterling: You can get around 4 or 5 of that upgrade material relatively early in the game; after that it'll be a while. Despite the huge upgrade increments unique items can still be buffed up to +5/given an extra element.

@fredchuckdave: Hmm, I have not found a single one yet, and I have a lot of places open on the warp map. Its filled right now actually. And I've yet to find one.

hiedes sword +9

once you get use to the swing it works well for a faith build, but aoe hits are lacking

+3 Bastard Sword and a +2 Mace, using that wooden tower shield you can buy, but I just got a proper metal one so I'll switch to that. I've got the Drangliec sword but no twinkling titanite to upgrade it so I'm sticking with the Bastard as I can upgrade that with some large titanite I found last night.

Still looking for my old friend the Zweihander.

I've been using an upgraded broadsword for pretty much the whole 15 hours. It's really, really good.

Fire Longsword +5 still. Haven't found anything else that's good. I found an Old Halbert or something that is pretty decent, but it does less damage than my Fire Longsword and drains more stamina so it's not worth it. Besides that, I really like the look and moveset of Twinblade, but it does so low damage, it's not very feasible. I suspect it will be a good PvP weapon due to it's moveset, but not very practical for PvE.

Switched to a Magic Great Club+10 for when the Skull breaks. Also you need a ridiculous weapon to efficiently kill enemies in one particular area (the most visually stunning area in the game). Dark Chasm of Old is fucking insane.

FALCHION +4 BABY

anybody have any reliable ways to farm titanite yet?

The big guys with hammers in Harvest Valley seem to drop it pretty consistently.

First time I started out a souls game using magic. Mainly because my patience now is nil and I'm trying to save myself some frustration.

Just flinging the same ho-hum soul arrow spells so far though so it is getting to be a bit of a drag. You eventually get some new stuff later in the game, so that should be nice, assuming any of it is useful. I did find one new spell, best I can describe it is a spray of semen. Useless overall due to it just getting everywhere, but would've been fun to use if it didn't only have 3 explosions/casts.

I will say though that I keep meaning to put stuff into stats that would let me play around with weapons, but I keep throwing it into magic. Though I think my int and attunement are high enough now where I can start dipping into some melee.

If you're wondering about magic and if it's still op, I am dealing with regular enemies with ease. Boss battles though can get tricky if it's something like Dragonrider where you can't really move. Just a matter of baiting to get room, not too hard. Though my complete focus on magic means I'm also brittle as fuck. Still haven't really got a handle on the new, slower healing. But... in conclusion, yeah it's still in break the game territory.