I am not entirely sure how damage on weapons actually works.

For example:

• Threaded Cane +5: Physical = 113 +40 (153), Arcane = 0 + 0.
• Blades of Mercy +4: Physical = 84 + 39 (123), Arcane = 42 + 6 (48).

Does this mean that the Blades of Mercy (171 combined damage) actually do more damage than the Threaded Cane (153 combined damage) against a theoretical opponent with zero resistance to Physical and Arcane?

Yeah i am also a bit unclear on how the damage works in some cases, the elemental blood gems seem terrible, i slotted one into my holy blade that gave it fire damage but removed all the other types of damage as well as completely nullifying the effect of the two other blood gems i had fitted.

Not sure how the armour system works either, gascoignes set increases your blunt and thrust defence but redusces your physical defence by the same amount compared to the hunters armour, so witch one is better in general then?

Arcane scaling doesn't come into play until you slot an Arcane damage blood gem into it. At which point you lose all physical damage and it switches over to Arcane completely.

Unless it's a weapon that inherently has Arcane or other elemental damage on it.

Regarding attire: it's fashionborne, they're all just trade offs. Wear what you need depending on the enemies you fight.

That is the thing i don't understand, since all enemies that use physical attacks use either blunt or thrusting damage it seems like you would never want to use a armour set that just has a higher general phys defense rating.

Keep in mind each individual attack move (like the pieces of a weapon's moveset) have their own scaling as well, so maybe one attack does 115% damage while another does 180% (numbers are just examples). That's why different attacks in the same moveset seem to do different amounts of damage.

This is why I couldn't really enjoy the Souls games. These are details that should be made clear upfront. It's not difficulty if the game makes no attempt to explain its systems, it's just poor design.

@quirkwood: Yes, that is correct. The total damage of the blades of mercy is a combination of both physical and arcane.

It does more damage than the cane on it's own, but the cane can be enchanted with the shell or with fire/ bolt paper.

Also, all weapons that only have one type of damage can turn all that damage into other types via blood gems. But it will make them scale with arcane instead.

I was always under the impression that it worked like this. You attack something. What you attack takes damage.

I'm Sorry?!

It's basic resistances and armor differences. If you have This number in That stat, you will resist This much damage from That damage type.

In the case of the weapons the OP brought up, the Cane and Blade both do respective physical damage attacks that are reduced by an enemy's physical resistance. The Blade also has additional Arcane damage, which is reduced instead by the enemy's Arcane resistance. Overall the Blade will do more damage except against certain enemies. Every single weapon and armor lists these values in no uncertain terms. Yes, previous Souls games have had a degree of poor explanation regarding their resistances, but Bloodborne is incredibly straightforward and upfront about it.

Sure, dislike the game all you want, but if you're barging into a thread asking for basic information and trying to make a point, the least you could do is attack something that is validly confusing, like the Scaling designation-by-letters system.

Is that confusing? I guess if you've never seen that kind of grading system before, it might not make sense, but it's so commonly used. What would have been a better way for them to show that stat, even?

Arcane damage is misleading, it only applies when a weapon has elemental damage at which point all physical damage is converted to elemental with arcane scaling.

I know it's not right, but I try multiple weapons on enemies to see which flows better for how I want to kill it. It might not be top damage, but I go for fun.

One, I didn't specify Bloodborne, just the Souls games. I've yet to play Bloodborne. Two, you yourself admit that the games suffer from having poor explanations. Three, yes, thank you for pointing out another poorly-explained mechanic.

@matiaz_tapia: Thanks! Do you know if the papers apply extra elemental damage or convert all weapon damage to elemental?

@the_nubster You came into a topic specifically addressed to Bloodborne and used it as a point against the entire Souls metaseries, then tried to turn the past failings against me for staying on the topic of Bloodborne in particular - a game that you admit you haven't played and, therefore, would have no idea whether or not it was able to overcome its predecessors' shortcomings in explaining mechanics. Sorry that I tried to give you a better target by pointing to one of maybe three mechanical things they failed to explain adequately out of dozens they are frank and open about. In Bloodborne, which, I again stress, is the Game Which We Are Discussing.

It looks like the OP's question has been answered, and this thread can die. On the off-chance it doesn't, I eagerly await three more enumerated snarks and the minor, but very real possibility, of a broad, dismissive statement.

I only had this issue my first time playing through Dark Souls. I had no idea I needed to look up stats to begin with, but once I started paying attention to that stuff on my second playthrough, it totally made sense? I don't know, it's all pretty clearly explained. Not sure what you don't understand about it.

Every game that isn't Demon's is pretttty explicit about what all the stats do.