Two Hand Weapon Bonus

I need help understanding the benefit of two-handing a weapon. Is it a standard damage multiplier, or do some weapons actually benefit MORE from 2-handing (eg. greatswords vs dagger)? I'm doing a crazy Geralt of Rivia build (http://darksoulswiki.wikispaces.com/Geralt) and need the best two-handed weapon. I'm leaning toward Claymore but wondered if there was a sword that had a super/hidden bonus with 2-handing. Wishful thinking. Thanks in advance!

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Weapons like greatswords often swing faster than their lighter counterpart when wielded with two hands. There is less recovery time too...atleast I think so.

Weapons with a high Strength modifier will get higher ar when two-handed. At 27 Str, two-handing your weapon effectively gives you 40 Str (+50%). Two handing a pure dex weapon will not contribute to the ar of the weapon, but the two-handed attacks of most weapons are more powerful than the one-handed attacks, so two-handing usually deals more damage for dex weapons as well.
Two handing some weapons will also make them pass through a high deflection shield, while one-handing can make it bounce off. For example when using a one-handed vs two-handed longsword attack against the chained prisoner in the dlc.

^^ This. And when it comes to riposte and BS, you will only get a bonus if you are two-handing a weapon with STR scaling.

Thanks for the input. Any recommendations on which weapon seems to have the best two-hand benefit? Or is it JUST scaling that affects that? In other words, if I'm going to two-hand a weapon, it should be one that is B or greater scaling. Thanks!

One of my str characters alternates between some elemental greatswords and a greatsword +15. Although the AR doesn't change in your stats, you still get a 2-handing damage bonus on the elemental weapons even though they supposedly have no scaling. This combined with what seems to be a slightly faster swing speed (particularly the recovery swing) can really make a difference. Another factor is generally greater poise damage when 2 handing. A greatsword 2-handed swing will stagger anyone below 76 poise I believe, and the R2 thrust when two handed staggers people well above that.

Finally, if you plan to do a lot of two-handing fighting, take a look at how your planned weapon performs if you block with it. Heavier str weapons often have fairly good stability for blocking (which may be improved when 2-handing, not sure if this has been tested), and elemental weapons give a bonus to elemental blocking of the same type. For example, a lightning greatsword +5 has 70% physical damage block, 70% lightning damage block (higher than most shields!) and pretty good stability.

befowler wrote:One of my str characters alternates between some elemental greatswords and a greatsword +15. Although the AR doesn't change in your stats, you still get a 2-handing damage bonus on the elemental weapons even though they supposedly have no scaling. This combined with what seems to be a slightly faster swing speed (particularly the recovery swing) can really make a difference. Another factor is generally greater poise damage when 2 handing. A greatsword 2-handed swing will stagger anyone below 76 poise I believe, and the R2 thrust when two handed staggers people well above that.

Finally, if you plan to do a lot of two-handing fighting, take a look at how your planned weapon performs if you block with it. Heavier str weapons often have fairly good stability for blocking (which may be improved when 2-handing, not sure if this has been tested), and elemental weapons give a bonus to elemental blocking of the same type. For example, a lightning greatsword +5 has 70% physical damage block, 70% lightning damage block (higher than most shields!) and pretty good stability.

Great info! And thanks for reminding me about a basic concept: blocking with 2-hand! lol. Oddly, I rarely 2-hand (I cower behind a shield... I'm not ashamed!). Yeah, the Claymore actually has decent defensive stats! I'm feeling more confident about my build. Still debating if the Dark Hand is inline with Geralt. My gut says no, but I SOOOO want a shield! lol