So I've finished Anor Londo and I'm working my way to Nito. I'm lvl 74 right now and I don't really know whats a good weapon I should be going for. With stat scaling and upgrades I have no idea how to get the best weapon for me. I've been switching between the Gravelord Sword and the Silver Knight st Sword. I went mostly into strength/endurance. Now I'm realizing i can't handle how slow the strong weapons are so I've started investing into dex. So I'm 36 endurance, 33 strength and 25 dex. i really like the move set of straight swords. I've been liking the Silver Knight Sword but I hear it's not a great weapon because it has mediocre scaling. So what weapon should I start looking for?

Use a regular long sword, upgrade it to +15. Alternatively, a Halberd, Black Knight variety or otherwise, fully upgraded also works. Also, there's the claymore, which is a great sword, and thus attacks faster than the Ultra Great class weapons you were experimenting with.

Lastly, get your int to 25 and purchase Crystal magic weapon from Logan in the Duke's Archives if you go with a fully upgraded normal weapon. The benefits of normal weapons like Long Swords over special weapons like the Gravelord Sword is that they can be upgraded to a higher level, and more importantly, can be enchanted with buffing spells.

Sounds like ideally you want the Baldr Side Sword, which drops rarely from the Baldr Knights. It can be a pain to get that to drop though.

Have you tried the Claymore? It feels like a speedier version of the slowass strength weapons and has a good moveset too. I prefer speedier weapons, but I was quite fond of the Claymore. You can pick it up on the bridge where the red dragon hangs out.

The Longsword is probably my favorite strength-dexterity weapon. The attacks are pretty fast and deliver decent damage. I'm also fond of the Bastard Sword, but it has less reach than the Claymore.

I would recommend the Estoc over the BSS, especially to someone who has slightly more strength than dexterity. I love the moveset. Plus, you don't need to farm for it. It's at the beginning of the game.

If you're going to split your stats like that then you should go down the lightning or chaos upgrade path because your scaling isn't going to be great. You'll get more damage out of an elemental if you don't have good scaling on a normal. I'd say go with chaos since it scales with humanity, which is easy to farm in the DLC area.

The Estoc isn't a bad weapon, but it's a pretty noticeable departure from the straight sword class of weapon. Plus it's kind of underwhelming against enemies that can't be backstabbed or parried IMO.

Zweihander Lightning +5. Crush everything in your path with the heavy attack.

Silver Knight weapons from Annor Londo make Nito a cake walk. Just drop down kill the skeletons in the immediate area (they're Divine weapons so they wont res) and make sure you equip the Crest Shield from the asylum (80 Magic resist), he'll barely be able to damage you and provided you don't roam you won't have to fight off any additional dudes.

The SK spear +5 is pretty damn savage for a DEX build.

Silver knight sword doesn't get much love for some reason, but it's pretty effective. Just get it up to +5 and you should be fine.

Not necessarily true. When combining a fully upgraded long sword with simply Greater Magic Weapon (which works of a percentage of the mag adjustment of the catalyst), the total damage will be just below that of a fully upgraded elemental weapon. Factor in stat scaling and the former will in fact come out on top. In addition, crystal magic weapon, which has a mag adj percentage of 140% does not even require scaling to jump ahead.

A fully upgraded chaos longsword with 10 humanities (the cap) will be just barely better than a fully upgraded lightning weapon of the same type, leaving the normal upgrade + crystal magic weapon the superior choice either way.

Enchanted Claymore. Best sword.

http://darksoulswiki.wikispaces.com/Quelaag%27s+Furysword

My favorite weapon so far, it's upgraded at the Giant Blacksmith, so it makes for a good mid/late game weapon.

If this was Dark Souls 2 though, I wouldn't use it because of the changes they're making to backstab.

The Estoc just has the same issue as a spear: it only has stabbing attacks meaning it's easy for a mobile enemy to get out of the way. Longswords with their slashing light attacks have a lot more utility. Estoc is by no means bad though.

Longsword is probably your best bet, though Hand Axe or Reinforced Club are both fantastic when upgraded with the former having pretty quick swings and the latter having a wicked leaping heavy attack. But whatever you go with you'll always have an easier time if you upgrade your weapon to +15. It's less about "mid/late game weapons" and more about how upgraded your weapon is at mid/late game.

@chiablo said:

Like what? I can't think of any changes I know of to the backstab that would suddenly make the Furysword less viable.

Literally any weapon can be viable through the entire game (perhaps aside from the broken swords) as long as its upgraded properly.

My favorite weapon in the game is the basic Longsword. It's moveset is amazing and you can start with it.

@redroach: Best weapons imo were Black Knight Sword. long sword, or the super long katana you can can buy. You have to join the forest coven or w/e, then there is a guy who sells it near the advanced pyro witch. Think hes under/near the wheel thing in the underground swamp. Area just before you head over to where the spider boss is/was.

I guess I need to get over the assumption that unique weapons are better then regular ones. Thanks for all the advise everyone, looks like i'll be checking out the longsword and BSS. One other quick question: Is the shield you get from Soul of Sif any good? I'm not very interested in the greatswords.

One-handed R2 does trigger a horizontal cut, though.

The shield is good, if you like greatshields and have the stats to equip it. It requires a pretty hefty stat investment.

Black Knight Halberd master race! That thing cleaves through just about anyone.

He's level 74 with 36 end, 33 str and 25 dex. It's safe to assume he hasn't put any leveling into faith or int. Magic adjustment values depend on faith/int, so his magic adjust will be low. It's probably unwise to recommend leveling yet another scaling stat, unless his intent is to use Astora's Straight Sword or the Greatsword of Artorias. It's especially unwise considering it would seem that he hasn't leveled Vit yet.

Yep. Mostly anything with lightning is pretty dope.

@breadfan: A lot less than it used to be though.

@korwin: I'm using a silver knight straight sword and the skeletons in Nito's boss fight are still resurrecting.

I used Queelaag's Furysword and didn't really bother with the chaos aspect of it. It's super fast and pretty high damage. That worked out pretty well, replaced my drake sword.

Queelaag's Furysword is my favorite item. Took it from New Londo to the endgame. There's probably better weapons, but that sword catches fire whenever you swing it! How much more boss can you get with a weapon?

I really liked the Black knight Greataxe. Relatively quick, huge damage. Its such a huge pain in the ass to get because chances are you probably wont get it until the very end of the game.

Just quickly checked, it used to carry the same Divine modifier that the Spear has but they changed it in a patch. Shame that, get an SK spear instead :P

With 33 strength you'll get good scaling from the Man Serpent Greatsword, it's easy to get as the lizardmen in Sen's Fortress drop it. Also, the Black Knight Greataxe is the best black knight weapon and one of the best strength weapons but unless you got lucky and got it from the black knight in the catacombs you'll have to wait till the end of the game. EDIT: The Butcher Knife is also a good fast weapon that scales very well with strength, but you can only get it by killing a black phantom before you kill Quelaag.

@starfoxa said:

Yep, I love my Black Knight Halberd. Feels pretty quick and it destroys stuff when fully upgraded. Just look at how well Vinny did in the Four Kings boss fight with that thing.

@amlabella said:

It was the tank to end all tank methods.

I strolled through NG+2 with an Uchigatana. Two-handed with Charcoal cut through the Four Kings like butter.

My backups were a Bastard, a Longsword, the Claymore, and a Balder Side, each on a different upgrade path.

Actually this isn't true, only for the spear. The Silver Knight Straight Sword is actually normal physical damage. That said, it's a pretty good weapon because it has decent damage but can also be enchanted. In terms of straight swords it's pretty decent, at least in NG.

The best thing about Dark Souls is that every weapon fills a role. There's no one weapon you should use in any given situation. Just focus on upgrading the weapon who's move-set you like the most and you'll be fine.

Looove my Long Sword.

You described how I finished the last 1/3rd of the game pretty accurately.

I'm a few levels behind the OP and working a DEX build right now, and I love the Iaito and the Eagle Shield. The Iaito's fast, scales well with DEX and lets me get in multiple hits on most enemies. The Eagle Shield is just awesome all-round, being the lightest of the Great Shields, you get a lot of stability, and can keep your equip weight under 25% for the fast roll. I keep a rapier and a heater shield on the sidelines for easier to parry/backstab enemies, cause wow! The backstab and especially riposte damage on an upgraded rapier is insane! And the Heater Shield is the only shield that blocks 100% physical damage and has a fast parry.

I've been using a combination of a +15 Iaito and a +5 Furysword thoughout my NG+ playthrough with a Dex based pyromancer and not much has put up a lot of a fight. However, I'm currently being utterly kicked around by the Four Kings, so have decided to try out the Great Scythe, see if I do any better with that.

@gatehouse: I think the Great Scythe is by far the best Dex weapon, it has excellent speed and reach. I'd say it has the best strong attack in the game as it's just as fast as a normal attack, hits across a wide arc and doesn't really use that much stamina.

Eh, stick with the Silver Knight sword if you like it. There aren't any major problem with it outside of the weight. It's what I used on my most recent character to beat NG++. Though that was mostly beacuse I like the look of it.

To be honest, I never even thought of trying it until I saw what stats it could do. Having given it a little bit of a whirl, I can see why people have been banging on about it so much.

The window for a backstab in Dark Souls is huge, so with light armor and a fast weapon, it's very easy to exploit backstabs. In DS2, the window is a lot smaller, so they won't be guaranteed.

With your str/dex split that evenly, unless you go for elemental weapons which pretty much ignore your stats for damage, your best bet are probably things like the claymore with a C/C str/dex scaling. The move set is nice(slashes and thrusts) and its not as slow as the zwei.

Since you want something faster with split stats without going elemental then you are looking at the Longsword, Broad Sword or Dark Sword. Washing pole is also an option but it breaks fairly easy and pretty much designed for giving it an elemental attack.

If you continue to invest in dexterity I would also look at a couple of points in attunement so you can use pyromancy spells which require no other stats except for dex to cast faster.

This is the proper way to late-game in Dark Souls.

I didn't feel like the window was noticeably different when I played the beta. I had absolutely no trouble backstabbing dudes once I had a little practice. Only parries/repostes seemed dramatically different.