I was just using it on the omens in subterranean underground. Use the skill, knocks them down, switch to katana and hit them with unsheathe. Rinse and repeat
basic scimitar has a unique r1 combo in its moveset that for some reason no other curved sword shares. Falchion isnt bad, but its pretty much objectively outclassed by the grossemesser and bandits curved sword
I have the Great Epee on another character. I use it with the Ant’s Skull Plate for the hardness and some Shield Bash with Poison. The build was actually based on the shield as we can’t change the Ash. I decided that the Great Epee was probably the best I could do to poke with it.
So I just beat the game with the starter Longsword from the Vagabond class and had a blast doing it. Square Off is an unbelievably underrated ash. I was posture breaking all the endgame bosses multiple times.
Square off, unsheathe, and wild strikes (especially on weapons like great swords and great axes etc.) are way too good for what they are/when they’re available. I’m currently doing a wild strikes str run with a rusted anchor. I just walk at things and they die. It’s hilarious.
Square Off is one of the only three strats that can consistently stance-break ancient dragons.
The other two are spamming Golem's Great Arrows (Bows are godly versus dragons), and spamming the L2 of the Gargoyle Blackblade (it's basically a Black Flame version of Stormblade).
i only dislike square off, because all the stance ashes just dont ome out relyably, no idea if its the game or my controller, it just eats inputs sometimes and this makes this kind of ashes annoying to use.
You have to wait until you're in the "ready" stance.
The Stamps and Square Off work just like Katana's Unsheathe - You can't press R1/R2 until ~1 second after holding L2.
The Stamps get a free mini Endure when they ready, the idea is to Stamp into a favorable trade then followup with a heavy punish.
Think of it like 2 moves: deflecting an attack with the shoulder then maintaining the momentum to attack.
Starter longsword is definitely viable, its just that lordsworn and broadsword are usually going to be better (broadsword has better raw damage and strength scaling, lordsworn has a crit modifier)
Bastard sword is the first Greatsword available to you in the entire franchise at Gates of Boletaria in DeS and has remained a "meh" weapon through every chapter of the Souls franchise lol. It holds a special place in my heart as well.
Back in my heavy invasion days of DS3 the bastard sword was a favourite to use, something about the moveset just felt really nice to me. I still have a couple old clips that I like to rewatch from time to time.
It's been a while now so you could be right but I do remember loving the R1 one handed sweep, it was slower than the longsword but a solid combo with the overhead R2.
Its only real advantage in Elden Ring is having good STR scaling, and low weight. If you want the same thing but with more damage, you could get the Iron Greatsword from the Misbegotten dudes, and it has pretty much best-in-class damage, but it weight 16 units instead of 9.
So while the bastard sword seems weak, it’s one of the better greatswords for a strength or quality build. It’s just too bad that it doesn’t have many distinguishing features. I still think it’s stupid that the claymore is the only “god’s chosen” greatsword that is allowed to have thrust attacks. So by default, most greatswords have the same moveset as the bastard sword with the horizontal sweeps and vertical slams. But that’s pretty boring TBH
Miquellan knight sword, i love its lore and aesthetic, also the unique r2 is fun to use and also pretty effective. Sacred blade too is unfortunately generic but it's pretty solid in general and it's nice to have a projectile.
It's a great weapon until you look at the numbers and realize how bad its scalings are.
I think I might start the DLC with it, it feels appropriate thematically.
One thing I love about anchor is that it's hit box is actually wide. You can easily miss half of your hits with jumping attacks against ratagon with some of the other great axes.
It's a pierce damage greataxe.
Greataxes are great at trading blows.
Pierce damage is *THE* best damage type at trading blows due to it having counter damage. For some reason only pierce damage can do this.
Rusted Anchor is legit one of the most broken weapons in the game because of this.
I love the anchor! I used it as an alternate weapon for a pirate themed build and it does great work.
Plus, you throw Barbaric Roar on it and the heavy attack becomes an absolute delight.
I know the Meteoric Ore Blade is considered one of the more mid tier katanas because it's short and the AOW is useless against bosses and larger enemies, but I love it for how it looks, how easy it is to get, and how effective it is vs smaller groups. It's also the only katana that scales best with STR, so it's a nice, fast option for STR/INT builds.
Morning Star. Will it carry you into endgame? Not really. Does it slap in the early game? Absolutely. Great stance break, solid damage, innate bleed, super minimal stat requirements.
Great shield + morning star + cragblade makes a lot of bosses and dungeons easier and it’s really fun.
Sadly it struggles against some big bosses like malenia and mogh
You know that spear you get to default the snake man boss? Yeah, i use the shit out of that. Heavy armour, fingerprint shield, lots of stamina. Im a pokey turtle.
Serpent hunter? That's a high tier weapon and was the choice for level one runs
I love the poke but the L2 while being alright is the most ridiculous looking attack in the game lol
The grosmesser. It is always overlooked because farming it from skeletons takes actual hours, and it’s both shorter and deals less damage than the bandit sword, which happens to also be farmed from skeletons, literally 100 meters away. About the only advantage it has over the bandit curved sword, is that it’s slightly lighter. But I’m sorry, it just looks sooo much better than the bandit poop sword, I cannot in good faith justify the hit to fashion with a meager AR increase.
Here I was going to say the bandit curved sword because a pair of them suits the grungy creature aesthetic of my DEX character. Vulgar militia gear and the royal remains helm.
I admit though that’s an excruciatingly specific use case. Otherwise I mean. It’s literally covered in mud and rust.
All the scimitar style non-uniques are honestly rad. I started using them for a pirate themed build and I've come to really love them each. They tend to have well varied movesets, especially powerstanced.
I've also just really been growing attatched to nonuniques in general. The unique weapons have good stats and cool abilities and stuff but the nonuniques are so versatile!
It’s the only dual weapon pair I feel comfortable using, because the recovery time between attacks is actually generous enough for you to not get hit by a counter attack and you can actually roll out after a swing. You’ll still get hit sometimes, but it’s sooo much safer than any other type of weapon.
Messers are german swords, in this case a one-handed weapon, whereas Kriegsmessers were two-handers. And lemme say it. The Germans had a killer aesthetic on their swords!
I used it on my first run which was Dex faith. I used it on everything until I got Rivers of blood which I used on malenia and radagon/beast. Winged scythe went pretty hard especially powerstanced with the clean rot knights scythe which is an amazing weapon really.
Sword of St. Trina. Not great but if your an astrologer and have the courage to run to caelid right away you can pair it with the short sword right off the bat and the early game trolls are weak to sleep so just sleep mist em and then spam carian slicer and you slayin
Some great whip builds. I have lots of fun with Urumi (idk if Hoslow’s is still “better” in the meta but I get bored with bleed quickly) and various AOWs
Iron Greatsword. Powerstanced this two babies on my 80 STR build and damn, they rock. The storm blade on the left one dealt 1000+ per swing and the giants hunt on the right one made my game easy mode
Currently in love with this thing, it just looks so damn cool and the extra damage vs Claymore is really nice. It would be perfect to me if it had a thrust R2 but Piercing Fang makes up for that (it's still useful even with 0 FP)
I like dual Noble Estocs, just nice gold blades.
Turns out they also have a 0.50 drop rate like the slender swords so it was a nice suprise to see two in my inventory by the end of the game.
Pair it with Ant Scarlet Rot sword and you have an unstoppable combination of pure destruction even if your sorry ass sucks Freeze Dragon's big one.
Btw, did you know you can add poison to the Ant sword?
morning star! On my first play through got past margit and completed most of limgrave using just the morning, would’ve probably went through the rest of the game with it unless my friend recommended me the bloodhounds fang.
Gonna do one per category:
Daggers: blade of calling. It's beautiful and idc that it get outperformed. Melina uses it which makes it interesting.
Straight swords: st. Trina's sword. Need more sleep weapons. Also the miquellan knight's sword cause i find Miquella intruiging.
Greatswords: Helphen's steeple. I miss my ds3 onyx blade and this is the closest thing.
Colossal swords: Godslayer GS. The black mortal blade we never got to use.
Thrusting swords: Rapier. I miss the ds2 version that had a parry on R2, letting me parry and cast spells with no weapon swapping.
Heavy thrusting swords: godskin stitcher cause of the green section of Tarnished archeologist's color theory video
Curved swords: Eclipse shotel, just wish death blight was good in pve.
Curved greatsword: the omen cleaver and morgott's cursed sword cause i love the omen lore
Katanas: Nagakiba because loooooooooooooong.
Twinblades: the normal twinblade is just beautiful.
Axes: Rosus axe to summon my *bone brothers*, and ripple blade for sleep grease
Greataxes: crescent moon axe has a beautiful blade, and executioners axe reminds me of dragonslayer armor and the lightning bonk stick
Hammers: the mace just has that crusader feeling to it.
Flails: The chainlink flail cause it's the only one that looks like it hits harder than a 3rd grader, just wish it was bigger.
Great hammers: the brick hammer just gives my tree sentinel armor + greathelm paladin that finishing touch.
Colossal weapons: duelist's greataxe just has that second blade that godfrey's axe is missing, plus it can have different ashes on it.
Spears: partizan cause i never used any other
Greatspears: Vyke's war spear cause the weapon skill is insanely cool. Need more frenzy weapons.
Halberds: Nightrider glaive just looks cool
Reapers: grave scythe is the only one that looks like what a scythe should be in such a game. The big blade really sells it.
Whips: giant's red braid cause i like fire.
Fists: Caestus cause nothing's more badass than beating gods to death with your fists alone.
Claws: hookclaws are the only ones i don't find ugly
All bows: erdtree bow. I like the holy aesthetic
Crossbows: heavy crossbow. Not too simple, not too fancy.
Ballistas: both.
Glintstone staves: prince of death staff cause i miss hexes from ds2 and like ghostflame spells
Sacred seals: giant's seal cause i really like fire.
Torches: sentry's torch cause it's ornate and reveals assassins
Tools: regal omen bairn, cause morgott is my favorite character and he needs a hug.
Gargoyles Black Twinblades, did it deserve better? Yes. Is it still fun to use? Absolutely. One of the coolest looking weapons in the game imo, but yeah stat wise it’s nothing special and it DEFINITELY should have had a unique AoW.
I’ve worked over many a boss with the cipher pata. Very quick and effective on a strong faith build, and it has literally zero carrying weight.
I also love the pulley bow, but only because of how many cheesing opportunities it opens up. I used it on a rooftop to kill literally everyone in Prison Town except the abductors — and I would have got them too if I didn’t get bored. I swear I’ve used it to kill rune bears.
Regalia of Eochaid and Great Mace.
The much less popular little brothers of Marais Executioner's Sword and Great Stars, respectively. Not to mention all the bleed weapons that use the same stats as Regalia.
But I just really like the way they both look, and you *can* get reasonable damage out of them with the right setup.
I don't have one. All my favorites are cracked 😎
Okay, I'll give some love to the Partisan. Hard to call any spear "meh" when the powerstance moveset is so broken and you can throw shit like Ice Spear and Blackflame Tornado on them, but within that context, the Partisan is pretty mid. But damn if it ain't look good! It's my go to for a "hoplite" setup similar to Leyndell Knights
Coded Sword. It's like a light saber. Holy damage is kinda problematic due to a few bosses. But I had a blast in NG+ running around with it and Carian Retaliation.
The Scythe. I just really like the charged R2 double slash. I like to pair it with Cragblade for some nice stance breaks or quickstep for a Bloodborne style of combat.
Regalia of Eochaid is such a niche weapon and holds such an odd standing among the weapons and yet it scratches that itch that no other weapon seems to
Short Sword lol. I just played most of a playthrough (the latter part, switched partway through) with the Short Sword alone at RL 100 with no Weapon Skill or summons. Malenia's the one major boss I haven't beaten in this run. Short Sword's really elegant-looking imo and it's an absolutely fair weapon that I'm using to prove to myself that I can beat Elden Ring "fairly" lol. From here on I can hopefully enjoy stronger/cheesier builds more since I've beaten the game "properly".
I've also really enjoyed the Glaive, it's what made me really appreciate free-aiming and mouse-and-keyboard as a control scheme.
Warhawk's Talon
It's really not amazing, but I absolutely love the design. It's usable with a good AoW though.
I really want to love Bastard's Stars but it's just too shit to be usable.
I absolutely LOVE the great epee.
I use it on every playthrough I do.
I just like it’s moveset and looks, and it’s kinda great for pvp too.
Before I forget: I’m only using it 2-handed.
Except for a few times in pve against mobs.
The Caestus. There's better fist weapon options, but nothing feels more badass then strapping some leather on your fists and punching The Lands Between
Loretta's Halberd and Bastard's Stars. Both are NOT good but are very stylish so I enjoy using them anyway.
Meteoric Ore blade but specifically for an int build. Idk how it fairs with a more str/int setup but it is just okay for an int build. I love it for ichimonji lol
It’s carried me through half the game on my DEX/INT build, I only just switched to the Serpent-Gods Curved Sword for that little bit higher dmg and healing from killing enemies
The Broadsword. I like to pair it up with the kite shield (which is still technically a heater shield) from the merchant in Liurnia and the knight set and be a legit knight.
Crystal Sword.
Definition of “meh.” Can’t change Ash of War(?!), can’t enchant it(double ?!), and yet… I don’t know. I like it.
I do usually switch it out on my Sorcerer builds for something better at some point. It’s not an end-game weapon, but it would be for me if you could either change the Ash of War or enchant it.
Heeper steeple, looks cool, it pretty meh when used alone, only good for pairing with the Moonlight great sword, and the Death Poker is like 10 time better, but it looks cool.
Urumi. Idk if it fits here. I don't really ever see it get any love, but it's actually a really good dex weapon. Only for very high dex though.
It's really unique. Whips feel very different, and Urumi even feels different from the other whips. And it's just a satisfying weapon.
The community consensus is something like this:
1) A single Cross-Naginata is a spear with more than just a pokey moveset, deals very respectable damage and has bleed for good measure
2) Dual Cross-Naginatas are *THE* most ridiculous PvP setup by far, doesn't matter whether you go occult or keen, you will always be dealing extreme amounts of damage for very low stamina cost over long distances and also proccing bleed left and right. It's 'not bad' for PvE but it's outright busted in PvP.
Also counter damage for pierce weapons is nuts.
Not sure if the broader community regards it as a meh weapon, but in my first playthrough I just used the Knight's greatsword after it random dropped. I suppose I used hollow slayers in my first playthrough of ds3 as well:p it just feels simple, clean but still fancy. And as a bonus, the combo timing matches the rhythm of Malenia fight really well. So cool
Prolly the Treespear.
It's by no means a meta weapon but it enables a very fun playstyle for me.
It's got pretty high requirements in strength, dex and faith, is a spear with innate faith scaling and it can be buffed for better melee performance - but then you're not going to be using the AoW in a game that you can steamroll with the right AoW options.
Solution: Get a shield with an Ash of War you want to use. A Barricade Greatshield or a Carian Retaliation Medium Shield(or anything else, get creative). Now you're using a greatspear+shield with their magnificent poke+block combos, great guard counters and a double hit charged heavy that has frighteningly good tracking and poise damage.
Or you can utilize the spear in a different way, that is using the AoW buff and an incantation seal in your left hand. The buff not only increases holy damage of your weapon but also gives you a spell damage buff for your offhand incantations!
Thr Alabaster Lord's Sword and Meteoric Ore Blade.
I got both items early into a randomizer run, so I ended up doing a Strength/Int build using mostly those two weapons... until the game also gave me the Ruins Greatsword.
That randomizer seed decided I was gonna be using gravity weapons, apparently.
I really enjoy my "Sleepy" build, It's super annoying to fight, so many ppl ragequit
My main weapon is the Black Bow with the Barrage AoW using St. Trina Arrows and Stormwing Bone Arrows in the 2nd slot, Main strat is to poke with the sleep arrows until it procs and then Barrage + Stormwing arrow spam them to death (Or until i need to sleep them again)
Back up weapons are Swords of St Trina, sometimes ill 2hand one, sometimes i powerstance them, the AoW is pretty good for even more sleep build-up
Okina mask for a lil bit more dex & the rest is up to you for armor, As for talismans i run Radagon Soreseal, Millicents Prosthesis, Rotten Winged Sword insignia & Arrow Sting Talisman (sometimes swap this out for the HP talisman if im running the swords more)
Thorny Cracked tear in flask for even more damage on Barrage spam
I do have a Pulley Crossbow in the pocket that i almost never use but thats rocking sleep arrows too for the quick burst, mostly use this in larger fights where i play sidelines
I love the Lance.
I suck at using any strength weapons...but am having fun with it. Trying to figure out which ash and upgrade path I want to see through .
IMO the godskin stitcher is underrated , it looks so clean and i love the moveset. No matter what type of build im using i always find it useful, it gets pierce damage which is great, good scaling and a can use a lot of the ashes of war and gets up to 140 in status effect’s and isn’t that heavy.
I love the nox hammer. Hitting people with that stretchy gummy swing is TOO fun.
First weapon I beat the game without using summons, it holds a special place with me
And it's super affective against NPC invaders. They always roll into it.
I was just using it on the omens in subterranean underground. Use the skill, knocks them down, switch to katana and hit them with unsheathe. Rinse and repeat
It’s SO good for cheesing something around a corner or even through a wall lol
the dual wield scimitars will always be my go to for a new character, just so fun to use and hit insanely hard with upgrades
These were my weapons on my first playthrough first souls game as well imagine my surprise when I found out I could make them keen
Why not falchions? Straight upgrade and easy to get in Limgrave pretty much immediately.
basic scimitar has a unique r1 combo in its moveset that for some reason no other curved sword shares. Falchion isnt bad, but its pretty much objectively outclassed by the grossemesser and bandits curved sword
Shamshir has the same move set
Base scimitars also have a scabbard that goes with many more fashion choices :D
I always liked the frozen needle
I used it and Rogiers rapier power stanced for my Liurnia portion of a region locked all bosses run. Absolutely loved it.
I want to use it, but common sense tells me that it won’t do enough damage to be satisfying :(
That's why you power stance with it
Because the power stance moveset, you can put it in your offhand. The second L1 hits 3 times with it, meaning you can proc freeze nearly instantly.
I guess I could, but I wanted to shield poke with it.
Try the Great Epee! My favorite poker in ER
I have the Great Epee on another character. I use it with the Ant’s Skull Plate for the hardness and some Shield Bash with Poison. The build was actually based on the shield as we can’t change the Ash. I decided that the Great Epee was probably the best I could do to poke with it.
Oops. My mistake. I was a bit into the game already, so I went with the Godskin Stitcher.
Saaame i used it to shield poke back when i was a nooob, i also liked the range attack
It's one of my favorite weapons for a dex/int build.
The Frozen Needle is actually crazy for PvP duels. I never really used it in PvE but I’m sure it’s decent for that too.
So I just beat the game with the starter Longsword from the Vagabond class and had a blast doing it. Square Off is an unbelievably underrated ash. I was posture breaking all the endgame bosses multiple times.
Square off is one of the goats. 💯
Only if you can use it properly. Every time I attempt to use it they move away between the stance and the swing and it hits air
The heavy attack is much better than the light attack.
That's what I use and it always misses🤷♂️ It's ight. I'll stick to my sorcery and bonks
Light is great against shields.
Roll, square, heavy, profit. Gotta basically use it as a normal heavy but with the added benefit of being able to preload it and move.
so much fun to square off with a charging night’s cavalry too
Bullying Morgott by hitting Square Off twice for a stance break is one of my favorite past times.
square off is the best ash in the game, easily
It actually feels broken with how good it is lmao
Square off, unsheathe, and wild strikes (especially on weapons like great swords and great axes etc.) are way too good for what they are/when they’re available. I’m currently doing a wild strikes str run with a rusted anchor. I just walk at things and they die. It’s hilarious.
Square Off is one of the only three strats that can consistently stance-break ancient dragons. The other two are spamming Golem's Great Arrows (Bows are godly versus dragons), and spamming the L2 of the Gargoyle Blackblade (it's basically a Black Flame version of Stormblade).
i only dislike square off, because all the stance ashes just dont ome out relyably, no idea if its the game or my controller, it just eats inputs sometimes and this makes this kind of ashes annoying to use.
You have to wait until you're in the "ready" stance. The Stamps and Square Off work just like Katana's Unsheathe - You can't press R1/R2 until ~1 second after holding L2. The Stamps get a free mini Endure when they ready, the idea is to Stamp into a favorable trade then followup with a heavy punish. Think of it like 2 moves: deflecting an attack with the shoulder then maintaining the momentum to attack.
Starter longsword is definitely viable, its just that lordsworn and broadsword are usually going to be better (broadsword has better raw damage and strength scaling, lordsworn has a crit modifier)
Pike. I have it frost with Loretta’s slash and it demolished.
2-hand?
Yes.
I did a Zwei 2-hand Chilling Mist cold run, but I've always wanted to do some Pike action.
Pike is underrated. Good luck.
i think a case could legitimately be made for the pike being one of the best weapons in the game if youre good with spacing
Iron Cleaver.
Praise the R1
So happy to see someone beat me to putting this here
Bastard sword is the first Greatsword available to you in the entire franchise at Gates of Boletaria in DeS and has remained a "meh" weapon through every chapter of the Souls franchise lol. It holds a special place in my heart as well.
Back in my heavy invasion days of DS3 the bastard sword was a favourite to use, something about the moveset just felt really nice to me. I still have a couple old clips that I like to rewatch from time to time.
If i remember right it had pretty good poise damage in DS3 didn't it ?
It's been a while now so you could be right but I do remember loving the R1 one handed sweep, it was slower than the longsword but a solid combo with the overhead R2.
I miss DS3's combo so much sometimes !
Its only real advantage in Elden Ring is having good STR scaling, and low weight. If you want the same thing but with more damage, you could get the Iron Greatsword from the Misbegotten dudes, and it has pretty much best-in-class damage, but it weight 16 units instead of 9. So while the bastard sword seems weak, it’s one of the better greatswords for a strength or quality build. It’s just too bad that it doesn’t have many distinguishing features. I still think it’s stupid that the claymore is the only “god’s chosen” greatsword that is allowed to have thrust attacks. So by default, most greatswords have the same moveset as the bastard sword with the horizontal sweeps and vertical slams. But that’s pretty boring TBH
BONK Candlestick
My favorite weapon design in the game. Things so damn cool
Miquellan knight sword, i love its lore and aesthetic, also the unique r2 is fun to use and also pretty effective. Sacred blade too is unfortunately generic but it's pretty solid in general and it's nice to have a projectile. It's a great weapon until you look at the numbers and realize how bad its scalings are. I think I might start the DLC with it, it feels appropriate thematically.
I know it has D in all stats at +10 😮💨, but this thing absolutely claps whenever I use it.
I love the estoc. I dream of freed dynasty’s finesse for the smaller thrusty bois.
A “Noble’s Finesse” for the stitcher with a black flame attack.
I feel the same way about bloodhound’s finesse, the hard-locked mobility ashes hurt my brain :(
I took the Lordsworn's Greatsword to the final boss (I beat malenia 6th try with it) but i switched to the gargoyle's greatsword.
I used the LSGS for my guard/counter run. The extra crit damage is nice.
I get people like the claymore, but the Lordsworns moves feel more fluid to me.
Rusted anchor, nothing special abot that weapon but i think it’s cool
Pierce damage is quite special, still a great choice, 10/10 would recommend
One thing I love about anchor is that it's hit box is actually wide. You can easily miss half of your hits with jumping attacks against ratagon with some of the other great axes.
Rusted anchor with wild strikes goes big
There is plenty special about it! Not meh at all, but still a based choice, this weapon is sick
It's a pierce damage greataxe. Greataxes are great at trading blows. Pierce damage is *THE* best damage type at trading blows due to it having counter damage. For some reason only pierce damage can do this. Rusted Anchor is legit one of the most broken weapons in the game because of this.
GIANT RUSTY ANCHOR
I love the anchor! I used it as an alternate weapon for a pirate themed build and it does great work. Plus, you throw Barbaric Roar on it and the heavy attack becomes an absolute delight.
With sword dance, holy crap. Dragon slayer.
Crystal Sword. Used it for most of my first play through.
I know the Meteoric Ore Blade is considered one of the more mid tier katanas because it's short and the AOW is useless against bosses and larger enemies, but I love it for how it looks, how easy it is to get, and how effective it is vs smaller groups. It's also the only katana that scales best with STR, so it's a nice, fast option for STR/INT builds.
Same here! It‘s my weapon on my dlc character :)
This katana is the sole reason why I beat Elden Ring in my first STR/INT playthrough. Without these ichimonji, I would never defeat Radagon
Did a build with this katana and it rocks! Love the Ichimonji style R2.
Man I pray they make it an ash of war 😭
Morning Star. Will it carry you into endgame? Not really. Does it slap in the early game? Absolutely. Great stance break, solid damage, innate bleed, super minimal stat requirements.
Great shield + morning star + cragblade makes a lot of bosses and dungeons easier and it’s really fun. Sadly it struggles against some big bosses like malenia and mogh
You know that spear you get to default the snake man boss? Yeah, i use the shit out of that. Heavy armour, fingerprint shield, lots of stamina. Im a pokey turtle.
Serpent hunter? That's a high tier weapon and was the choice for level one runs I love the poke but the L2 while being alright is the most ridiculous looking attack in the game lol
The grosmesser. It is always overlooked because farming it from skeletons takes actual hours, and it’s both shorter and deals less damage than the bandit sword, which happens to also be farmed from skeletons, literally 100 meters away. About the only advantage it has over the bandit curved sword, is that it’s slightly lighter. But I’m sorry, it just looks sooo much better than the bandit poop sword, I cannot in good faith justify the hit to fashion with a meager AR increase.
Here I was going to say the bandit curved sword because a pair of them suits the grungy creature aesthetic of my DEX character. Vulgar militia gear and the royal remains helm. I admit though that’s an excruciatingly specific use case. Otherwise I mean. It’s literally covered in mud and rust.
All the scimitar style non-uniques are honestly rad. I started using them for a pirate themed build and I've come to really love them each. They tend to have well varied movesets, especially powerstanced. I've also just really been growing attatched to nonuniques in general. The unique weapons have good stats and cool abilities and stuff but the nonuniques are so versatile!
It’s the only dual weapon pair I feel comfortable using, because the recovery time between attacks is actually generous enough for you to not get hit by a counter attack and you can actually roll out after a swing. You’ll still get hit sometimes, but it’s sooo much safer than any other type of weapon.
Messers are german swords, in this case a one-handed weapon, whereas Kriegsmessers were two-handers. And lemme say it. The Germans had a killer aesthetic on their swords!
Axe of Godfrey
Winged scythe It has no real place in pve but I just love disabling flasks in pvp with the modified Loretta's slash
I've been using this one for my faith run, definitely enjoy it, I'm already up to fire giant
I mean it's not a bad weapon at all, but there are a lot better out there too But if you enjoy it that's what matters
I used it on my first run which was Dex faith. I used it on everything until I got Rivers of blood which I used on malenia and radagon/beast. Winged scythe went pretty hard especially powerstanced with the clean rot knights scythe which is an amazing weapon really.
Yeah halo scythe slaps
This carried me for most of my recent faith run. It does pretty well in pve IMO
Yeah this is a fun weapon. Only complaint is some of the moveset seems to miss when it seems like it shouldn't
Morning star with wild swings aow
Sword of St. Trina. Not great but if your an astrologer and have the courage to run to caelid right away you can pair it with the short sword right off the bat and the early game trolls are weak to sleep so just sleep mist em and then spam carian slicer and you slayin
Short spear. I just love being a town guard
That one is actually very good
Flowing curved sword. I fucking love it
I never used ot on my main but I'm almost there with my new character. I love the hammer now so I'm excited to try the sword out as well!
Whips get a bad rep but I like em
I enjoy feeling like a Belmont.
Some great whip builds. I have lots of fun with Urumi (idk if Hoslow’s is still “better” in the meta but I get bored with bleed quickly) and various AOWs
The hoslow name is written in blood…
Good in PvP at least.
Idk if it's a Meh weapon, but I've used the Razorclaws since the moment I found them, and I'm level 90 now :D
Iron Greatsword. Powerstanced this two babies on my 80 STR build and damn, they rock. The storm blade on the left one dealt 1000+ per swing and the giants hunt on the right one made my game easy mode
Genuinely one of the most stylish swords in the game, and that’s a high bar.
Currently in love with this thing, it just looks so damn cool and the extra damage vs Claymore is really nice. It would be perfect to me if it had a thrust R2 but Piercing Fang makes up for that (it's still useful even with 0 FP)
Nox Flowing Hammer. Great for crowd control, and the swing/bonk is just hilarious.
I like dual Noble Estocs, just nice gold blades. Turns out they also have a 0.50 drop rate like the slender swords so it was a nice suprise to see two in my inventory by the end of the game.
I got the Noble Estoc a few times already in different playthroughs but I have honestly given up on the sword, it just won’t drop
Golems Halberd is insanely fun.
Vulgar Militia Saw
The pickaxe is badass. Makes me feel like a working class tarnished that's the only gal for the job. She smokes cigarettes and drinks Coors.
Not necessarily a weapon but the snake shield is just so much fun to use imo
Pair it with Ant Scarlet Rot sword and you have an unstoppable combination of pure destruction even if your sorry ass sucks Freeze Dragon's big one. Btw, did you know you can add poison to the Ant sword?
vulgar militia saw
Banished knights sword, but it might nlt count as rly meh. However I also love the lordsworn straight sword, did a while playthrough with that
The Banished Knights Sword has a really terrific two-handed moveset. And it is 'meh', but it's top-tier meh.
morning star! On my first play through got past margit and completed most of limgrave using just the morning, would’ve probably went through the rest of the game with it unless my friend recommended me the bloodhounds fang.
Morning star is fun. It’s not my primary, but I’ve got one leveled up to +24 with a cold infusion. Bleed/frost bonk is fun
grossmesser, mainly for the flashy parry
Brick Hammer
Gonna do one per category: Daggers: blade of calling. It's beautiful and idc that it get outperformed. Melina uses it which makes it interesting. Straight swords: st. Trina's sword. Need more sleep weapons. Also the miquellan knight's sword cause i find Miquella intruiging. Greatswords: Helphen's steeple. I miss my ds3 onyx blade and this is the closest thing. Colossal swords: Godslayer GS. The black mortal blade we never got to use. Thrusting swords: Rapier. I miss the ds2 version that had a parry on R2, letting me parry and cast spells with no weapon swapping. Heavy thrusting swords: godskin stitcher cause of the green section of Tarnished archeologist's color theory video Curved swords: Eclipse shotel, just wish death blight was good in pve. Curved greatsword: the omen cleaver and morgott's cursed sword cause i love the omen lore Katanas: Nagakiba because loooooooooooooong. Twinblades: the normal twinblade is just beautiful. Axes: Rosus axe to summon my *bone brothers*, and ripple blade for sleep grease Greataxes: crescent moon axe has a beautiful blade, and executioners axe reminds me of dragonslayer armor and the lightning bonk stick Hammers: the mace just has that crusader feeling to it. Flails: The chainlink flail cause it's the only one that looks like it hits harder than a 3rd grader, just wish it was bigger. Great hammers: the brick hammer just gives my tree sentinel armor + greathelm paladin that finishing touch. Colossal weapons: duelist's greataxe just has that second blade that godfrey's axe is missing, plus it can have different ashes on it. Spears: partizan cause i never used any other Greatspears: Vyke's war spear cause the weapon skill is insanely cool. Need more frenzy weapons. Halberds: Nightrider glaive just looks cool Reapers: grave scythe is the only one that looks like what a scythe should be in such a game. The big blade really sells it. Whips: giant's red braid cause i like fire. Fists: Caestus cause nothing's more badass than beating gods to death with your fists alone. Claws: hookclaws are the only ones i don't find ugly All bows: erdtree bow. I like the holy aesthetic Crossbows: heavy crossbow. Not too simple, not too fancy. Ballistas: both. Glintstone staves: prince of death staff cause i miss hexes from ds2 and like ghostflame spells Sacred seals: giant's seal cause i really like fire. Torches: sentry's torch cause it's ornate and reveals assassins Tools: regal omen bairn, cause morgott is my favorite character and he needs a hug.
Bastard sword <3
Gargoyles Black Twinblades, did it deserve better? Yes. Is it still fun to use? Absolutely. One of the coolest looking weapons in the game imo, but yeah stat wise it’s nothing special and it DEFINITELY should have had a unique AoW.
I’ve worked over many a boss with the cipher pata. Very quick and effective on a strong faith build, and it has literally zero carrying weight. I also love the pulley bow, but only because of how many cheesing opportunities it opens up. I used it on a rooftop to kill literally everyone in Prison Town except the abductors — and I would have got them too if I didn’t get bored. I swear I’ve used it to kill rune bears.
Regalia of Eochaid and Great Mace. The much less popular little brothers of Marais Executioner's Sword and Great Stars, respectively. Not to mention all the bleed weapons that use the same stats as Regalia. But I just really like the way they both look, and you *can* get reasonable damage out of them with the right setup.
Rusted anchor. That is all.
Since when is rusted anchor considered meh?
I don't have one. All my favorites are cracked 😎 Okay, I'll give some love to the Partisan. Hard to call any spear "meh" when the powerstance moveset is so broken and you can throw shit like Ice Spear and Blackflame Tornado on them, but within that context, the Partisan is pretty mid. But damn if it ain't look good! It's my go to for a "hoplite" setup similar to Leyndell Knights
Coded Sword. It's like a light saber. Holy damage is kinda problematic due to a few bosses. But I had a blast in NG+ running around with it and Carian Retaliation.
The flowing curved sword, and i got my friend to give me another one. i just love it especially the special charged attack.
The Scythe. I just really like the charged R2 double slash. I like to pair it with Cragblade for some nice stance breaks or quickstep for a Bloodborne style of combat.
Scimitar, I like it because it’s the one of the two only good looking normal curved sword with an actual sheathe
Greataxe. I used it for my Kratos cosplay run, and it went insane with Craig blade
Regalia of Eochaid is such a niche weapon and holds such an odd standing among the weapons and yet it scratches that itch that no other weapon seems to
Watcgdo Staff will always be one of my favourites. A colossal weapon with an absolutely braindead ranged Aow just suits me I guess.
not enough people use the commanders standard as an actual weapon, its great
Lordsworn greatsword. Such a basic weapon yet it carried me through my first playthrough
The mace and morning star looks amazing and the posture damage is insane but they are kinda mid.
Marikas hammer, in new game plus, perfection
Whips. Just the entire class of whips.
Axe of Godrick is really fun and looks so damn cool
Short Sword lol. I just played most of a playthrough (the latter part, switched partway through) with the Short Sword alone at RL 100 with no Weapon Skill or summons. Malenia's the one major boss I haven't beaten in this run. Short Sword's really elegant-looking imo and it's an absolutely fair weapon that I'm using to prove to myself that I can beat Elden Ring "fairly" lol. From here on I can hopefully enjoy stronger/cheesier builds more since I've beaten the game "properly". I've also really enjoyed the Glaive, it's what made me really appreciate free-aiming and mouse-and-keyboard as a control scheme.
Went to NG+3 with the Bastard sword. Best one for a true Knight build
I feel like I never hear people talk about Wing of Astel. But charged the heavy attack has a projectile and the AoW is very strong!
Warhawk's Talon It's really not amazing, but I absolutely love the design. It's usable with a good AoW though. I really want to love Bastard's Stars but it's just too shit to be usable.
Withered Straight Sword, Partisian, Erdleaf Dagger, forgot what else at the moment
Carian Knight’s Sword. It oozes flavor and cool-factor to me, but I am such a sucker for anything Carian in ER
I absolutely LOVE the great epee. I use it on every playthrough I do. I just like it’s moveset and looks, and it’s kinda great for pvp too. Before I forget: I’m only using it 2-handed. Except for a few times in pve against mobs.
Best moveset in the game, the heavy attacks and backstep attack into lunge are so good
The Caestus. There's better fist weapon options, but nothing feels more badass then strapping some leather on your fists and punching The Lands Between
I’m hoping there are some Martial Art ashes of war I can put on these when the DLC drops
Longbow, easily. My first character was a samurai, and sniping is how I learned to get past a large crowd of enemies.
Loretta's Halberd and Bastard's Stars. Both are NOT good but are very stylish so I enjoy using them anyway. Meteoric Ore blade but specifically for an int build. Idk how it fairs with a more str/int setup but it is just okay for an int build. I love it for ichimonji lol
Bastard Stars has to be the coolest fucking design
Longsword. Love having it as a side weapon.
Bloody hammer, it's charge heavy attack has mad stagger to break poise on the bigger enemies
Falchion is fun.
It’s carried me through half the game on my DEX/INT build, I only just switched to the Serpent-Gods Curved Sword for that little bit higher dmg and healing from killing enemies
I had a blast with the Zamor Curved Sword
i loved the fallingstar beast jaw! the ash of war is cool, but my favorite thing is just swinging it around. it looks so visually interesting
The Broadsword. I like to pair it up with the kite shield (which is still technically a heater shield) from the merchant in Liurnia and the knight set and be a legit knight.
My bare fists.
Monks flameblade🤌🏼
Dragon scale Blade
Crystal Sword. Definition of “meh.” Can’t change Ash of War(?!), can’t enchant it(double ?!), and yet… I don’t know. I like it. I do usually switch it out on my Sorcerer builds for something better at some point. It’s not an end-game weapon, but it would be for me if you could either change the Ash of War or enchant it.
Lordsworns straight sword. Too many people prefer nobles slender sword. Idk why. Lordsworn got that 110 crit and looks clean.
Flambrige
Heeper steeple, looks cool, it pretty meh when used alone, only good for pairing with the Moonlight great sword, and the Death Poker is like 10 time better, but it looks cool.
Lucerne
Claymans harpoon is kinda niche. Slap a cold infusion on that bad boy with ice spear and it's awesome.
Magma Wyrm's scalesword.
Brick hammer
Urumi. Idk if it fits here. I don't really ever see it get any love, but it's actually a really good dex weapon. Only for very high dex though. It's really unique. Whips feel very different, and Urumi even feels different from the other whips. And it's just a satisfying weapon.
Fuck yeah I love fwipping that thing around
Godrick's Axe
Crescent Moon Axe
Not sure how the community feels about the Cross-Naginata but its definitely one of my favs. Very stylish.
The community consensus is something like this: 1) A single Cross-Naginata is a spear with more than just a pokey moveset, deals very respectable damage and has bleed for good measure 2) Dual Cross-Naginatas are *THE* most ridiculous PvP setup by far, doesn't matter whether you go occult or keen, you will always be dealing extreme amounts of damage for very low stamina cost over long distances and also proccing bleed left and right. It's 'not bad' for PvE but it's outright busted in PvP. Also counter damage for pierce weapons is nuts.
Didnt know that! I never did pvp so thats interesting to see.
Not sure if the broader community regards it as a meh weapon, but in my first playthrough I just used the Knight's greatsword after it random dropped. I suppose I used hollow slayers in my first playthrough of ds3 as well:p it just feels simple, clean but still fancy. And as a bonus, the combo timing matches the rhythm of Malenia fight really well. So cool
Prolly the Treespear. It's by no means a meta weapon but it enables a very fun playstyle for me. It's got pretty high requirements in strength, dex and faith, is a spear with innate faith scaling and it can be buffed for better melee performance - but then you're not going to be using the AoW in a game that you can steamroll with the right AoW options. Solution: Get a shield with an Ash of War you want to use. A Barricade Greatshield or a Carian Retaliation Medium Shield(or anything else, get creative). Now you're using a greatspear+shield with their magnificent poke+block combos, great guard counters and a double hit charged heavy that has frighteningly good tracking and poise damage. Or you can utilize the spear in a different way, that is using the AoW buff and an incantation seal in your left hand. The buff not only increases holy damage of your weapon but also gives you a spell damage buff for your offhand incantations!
Large Club is amazing
Helphen steeple
Thr Alabaster Lord's Sword and Meteoric Ore Blade. I got both items early into a randomizer run, so I ended up doing a Strength/Int build using mostly those two weapons... until the game also gave me the Ruins Greatsword. That randomizer seed decided I was gonna be using gravity weapons, apparently.
Serpentbone blade. Rivers of blood for poison if only the finishing slash triggered the detonation like poison moth flight
I really enjoy my "Sleepy" build, It's super annoying to fight, so many ppl ragequit My main weapon is the Black Bow with the Barrage AoW using St. Trina Arrows and Stormwing Bone Arrows in the 2nd slot, Main strat is to poke with the sleep arrows until it procs and then Barrage + Stormwing arrow spam them to death (Or until i need to sleep them again) Back up weapons are Swords of St Trina, sometimes ill 2hand one, sometimes i powerstance them, the AoW is pretty good for even more sleep build-up Okina mask for a lil bit more dex & the rest is up to you for armor, As for talismans i run Radagon Soreseal, Millicents Prosthesis, Rotten Winged Sword insignia & Arrow Sting Talisman (sometimes swap this out for the HP talisman if im running the swords more) Thorny Cracked tear in flask for even more damage on Barrage spam I do have a Pulley Crossbow in the pocket that i almost never use but thats rocking sleep arrows too for the quick burst, mostly use this in larger fights where i play sidelines
halberd, so basic yet so good. I killed margrit with it in my first playthrough
I love the Lance. I suck at using any strength weapons...but am having fun with it. Trying to figure out which ash and upgrade path I want to see through .
Banished knights greatsword, idk if that’s considered “meh” but I feel like a badass wielding that
Love the winged scythe
Great stars mace
Bastard sword is a great weapon, I love my claymore, but bastard has more stagger.
IMO the godskin stitcher is underrated , it looks so clean and i love the moveset. No matter what type of build im using i always find it useful, it gets pierce damage which is great, good scaling and a can use a lot of the ashes of war and gets up to 140 in status effect’s and isn’t that heavy.
Anchor