Which is the better choice? And other noobish questions.

1.I'm in a dilemma right now as to whether I should take the Greatsword of Artorias with a shield (medium or the Eagle shield) or go with the Greatshield of Artorias with the Darksword. PS:I'm just focusing on my first run, I'll get both eventually (if I can, which I think so)

Question:Can the Darksword reasonably stack up against the Greatsword of Artorias? Even if it can't, is the protection from the Greatshield of Artorias good enough to warrant using the Darksword?

Question:The Darksword requires one to enter the Darkwraith covenant and obtain what I consider to be a significant amount of humanity before obtaining the sword, in PVP. How difficult will this be?

2.I plan on making a character that can receive reasonable damage and dish it out too. I'm putting more emphasis on the blocking instead of evading or just taking a hit. I decided to put more points in endurance (17 vitality, 10 attunement, 22 endurance, 18 strength, 14 dexterity, 10 resistance, 9 intelligence, 11 faith). I'm level 30(started as a knight) by the way.

Question:Are my goals and my stats somewhat congruent? If not, what do you recommend? If you think my mindset is flawed/not applicable/could do better when it comes to my build, please feel free to leave comments or tips. I will be eternally grateful.

3.I'm completely confused where the elemental/occult/chaos/divine upgrades come into play. Should they be the final stage of all weapons that can achieve it? What (as in elemental or occult ect.) should I choose over the other when deciding on the upgrade? What about weapons that can't be upgraded (with things like chaos ect.), should I avoid them? (I've heard fire and lightning are not very good late/meta game.)

Question:I know very little about the upgrading system and the information I gleaned off forums seem to contradict each other. Any pointers on the above will be very much appreciated.

So yeah, I'm really new to this game but I'm having a blast nevertheless. I'd like to thank you in advance for your (most probably 8)) patience and understanding. PS:I did read the wiki's FAQ but couldn't really find the information I needed. Apologies in advance if I have missed a useful wiki link on the very questions.

PhalanxCookie wrote:1.I'm in a dilemma right now as to whether I should take the Greatsword of Artorias with a shield (medium or the Eagle shield) or go with the Greatshield of Artorias with the Darksword. PS:I'm just focusing on my first run, I'll get both eventually (if I can, which I think so)

Question:Can the Darksword reasonably stack up against the Greatsword of Artorias? Even if it can't, is the protection from the Greatshield of Artorias good enough to warrant using the Darksword?

To answer your question, what soul level you aiming for and what kind of build are you aiming for. For the Greatsword of Artorias to be close to the damage output of a darksword (fire, lightning, chaos, or +15 with Sunlight Blade/Darkmoon Blade/Crystal Magic Weapon/Resins) you need to have really high stats. Also the Greatshield while umm great, requires really high stats ( 36 str I believe) to wield. A little more information would help us help you.

My cleric eventually turned into a heavy armor wearing, eagle shield bashing, greatsword of artorias using behemoth. The problem is that in order to use the Greatsword, you need to have fairly high stats in 4 attributes. I basically had to grind out a few levels to use it, and I'm level 71 now. Now, it's my most damaging weapon.

Whereas you only need to level up your str to 36 to use the shield. And when you increase your str, you'll end up doing more melee damage.

I'd say take the shield first, even if you're playing a faith build.

Akatik wrote:My cleric eventually turned into a heavy armor wearing, eagle shield bashing, greatsword of artorias using behemoth. The problem is that in order to use the Greatsword, you need to have fairly high stats in 4 attributes. I basically had to grind out a few levels to use it, and I'm level 71 now. Now, it's my most damaging weapon.

Whereas you only need to level up your str to 36 to use the shield. And when you increase your str, you'll end up doing more melee damage.

I'd say take the shield first, even if you're playing a faith build.

My Ninja skills are elite!

Agree, take the shield, the greatsword will only do good damage at sl 150+

Trust me I have a build just for that beautiful sword

Um... Is as high as possible an answer? I thought we had to level as high as possible? For the sake of a concrete answer I'm looking at a minimum of 120.

Shield is better.

Carphil wrote:You are just lazy to read everything we wrote right?

My apologies, I typed slowly and I believe I was ninja'ed.

i think you are too early in the game to worry about greatsword of artorias or the artorias shield... they both need high stats to use, specially the sword. I have no experience what stat a tank built should increase (vit/str?) but definitely your weapons upgrade route should depend on that.

PhalanxCookie wrote:

Carphil wrote:You are just lazy to read everything we wrote right?

My apologies, I typed slowly and I believe I was ninja'ed.

In this case, I will edit my post and give you some rep

Yes I am too lazy to read everything we wrote...oh wait, you weren't talking to me.

To quote Jerry Maguire, "Rod, Help me help you!"

Robotech wrote:i think you are too early in the game to worry about greatsword of artorias or the artorias shield... they both need high stats to use, specially the sword. I have no experience what stat a tank built should increase (vit/str?) but definitely your weapons upgrade route should depend on that.

I was thinking more endurance and strength, but really, I just like ascetically pleasing gear, everything else is second.

What ? Just because my English sucks? I won't say sorry for this everytime I post

Thanks for all the tips on the gear guys, I'll just stick to the shield first. And I usually start a game with the end in mind (and enjoy the process, mind you) so I look a good gear and level for that.

Carphil wrote:What ? Just because my English sucks? I won't say sorry for this everytime I post

Sorry I was trying to be funny, my high school guidance counselor told me I wouldn't be good at that.

Carphil wrote:What ? Just because my English sucks? I won't say sorry for this everytime I post

If it's of any consolation, your English seems to be perfectly normal. In fact, over half the student in my class are much less proficient, I kid you not.

I'll give you a tip. The shield is awesome at phisical, poison and bleed resistence. However, there are better shields if you are needing elemental resistence (fire, lightning and magic) I usually use Artorias in the main hand and black knight shield(fire resistence), Crest shield (magic resistence) or Effigy shield (lightning resistence) in the second hand.

At later levels, if you have the STR required to use, you can switch between Artorias for the stats above and Havel's shield for the elemental resistence.

Carphil wrote:I'll give you a tip. The shield is awesome at phisical, poison and bleed resistence. However, there are better shields if you are needing elemental resistence (fire, lightning and magic) I usually use Artorias in the main hand and black knight shield(fire resistence), Crest shield (magic resistence) or Effigy shield (lightning resistence) in the second hand.

At later levels, if you have the STR required to use, you can switch between Artorias for the stats above and Havel's shield for the elemental resistence.

What is your weapon though? Can it hit hard?

I'm SL 71 and I chose the Sword. My stats are at the minimum required to use the sword, with faith being my leading stat. Right now, according to my stats screen, the Greatsword does 490 damage (I'm at work, but this number is close) and my lightning man-serpent greatsword does 506 damage. In a few levels, this will be (according to my stats screen) my most damaging weapon.

I chose the weapon because I didn't want to level my str all the way to 36, plus I was still trying to keep my encumbrance at 50%.

And in the end, unless you want to min/max it, go with what you can use the best and what you think feels better.

Akatik wrote:I'm SL 71 and I chose the Sword. My stats are at the minimum required to use the sword, with faith being my leading stat. Right now, according to my stats screen, the Greatsword does 490 damage (I'm at work, but this number is close) and my lightning man-serpent greatsword does 506 damage. In a few levels, this will be (according to my stats screen) my most damaging weapon.

I chose the weapon because I didn't want to level my str all the way to 36, plus I was still trying to keep my encumbrance at 50%.

And in the end, unless you want to min/max it, go with what you can use the best and what you think feels better.

On my 150 build I could do the double of damage without any buffs, at your level there are better weapons, don't cap yourself or change your weapon.

PhalanxCookie wrote:Thanks for all the tips on the gear guys, I'll just stick to the shield first. And I usually start a game with the end in mind (and enjoy the process, mind you) so I look a good gear and level for that.

This is a good idea but usually the 1st char we make becomes abandonware too quickly, because it is a learning char where you alocate levels in many stats in order to check various spells/miracles/weapons and see how you like to play the most. Just my idea ofcourse, it does not necessarily have to be like this. But play a little with stats to find how you really like to play.

PhalanxCookie wrote:

Carphil wrote:I'll give you a tip. The shield is awesome at phisical, poison and bleed resistence. However, there are better shields if you are needing elemental resistence (fire, lightning and magic) I usually use Artorias in the main hand and black knight shield(fire resistence), Crest shield (magic resistence) or Effigy shield (lightning resistence) in the second hand.

At later levels, if you have the STR required to use, you can switch between Artorias for the stats above and Havel's shield for the elemental resistence.

What is your weapon though? Can it hit hard?

I was at NG+ using the Greatsword of Artorias and the shield, actually shield only for pve. But before NG+ I was using a Lightning claymore+5 and a black knight greatsword+5. The artorias sword was doing more damage than both. My sl is 150

Okay, this is a doozie set of questions.

1.) The darksword will have some difficulty matching the scaling of the great-sword of Artorias. However it is faster, and required much less investment in stats. The greatswords whether cursed or not required at least 24 strength and 18 in Dex/Int/Faith. The darksword requires 16 strength and 16 dex.


2.) Your stats are not fit to weild the greatsword effectively without putting alot of points into things you may not use. However, with a reasonable investment in strength you could weild the greatshield effectively with bumping up the scaling of the darksword.

I'll let someone else handle the elemental weapons, because I do not use them.