Chaos Blade - Selling Points?

I've been trying to figure out if the Chaos Blade has a raison d'être or if it's just another "looks over substance" unique weapon. I've seen some praise lavished on it, but going by the Mugenmonkey weapon damage calculator it just doesn't seem that good. With the minimum Dexterity requirements and 10 Humanities, Chaos Blade doesn't seem to have much of an advantage over the +10 Katana required to forge it. At higher Dexterity, it has even less of an advantage over its non-unique counterparts. It has maybe 50-60 higher AR at minimum requirements, and only about 30 more at 40 Dexterity. (Uchigatana used for comparisons)

Granted, this isn't an insignificant amount of AR, but is it really worth the slightly higher weight, and much more importantly, the health drain and the inferior moveset? By the time you'd normally have sufficient Vitality to fully take advantage of the Chaos Blade without major consequences, won't a +15 buffable Uchigatana be vastly superior anyway?

It just makes me scratch my head. Why does it even exist? I'd appreciate it if someone could shed some light on this.

Best Katana for non-buffing dex builds. Life drain helps proc your RTSr then you menu swap to your SKS and destroy etc; That is the basic call of it. But I prefer uchi and Iaito cause of the CB's redundant r2 moveset.

Only time I made the damn thing it was in error - I was trying to make the Fury Sword :oops:

This was pretty early on in the game and I also sunk several demon titanite into it immediately. It did more damage than anything else I had at the time even with only 3-4 humanity.

So maybe it's a good early weapon if you have the humanity to take advantage?

But yeah it should be much much better especially given the hp penalty.

Chaos blade is one of the absolute best weapons in the game. Very good damage + very high bleed, has good R1 moveset like all katanas and it is fast as hell, it also has a little more range than other katanas (not washingpole).

@Amos:
Hm, I can see how that could be a viable strategy, yes. Sounds like it could be quite effective with the right timing etc.

@DMC:
But wouldn't the loss of 20 HP per hit be kind of significant that early?

@Juutas:
The damage at high dexterity is only marginally better than that of an Uchigatana +15, which has the same bleed effect, the same R1 moveset and a superior R2 moveset. The range seems like the only significant improvement over Uchi. It didn't seem like it had significantly higher attack speed than Uchi either.

Rarayn wrote:
@Juutas:
The damage at high dexterity is only marginally better than that of an Uchigatana +15, which has the same bleed effect, the same R1 moveset and a superior R2 moveset. The range seems like the only significant improvement over Uchi. It didn't seem like it had significantly higher attack speed than Uchi either.

The thing is that Chaos Blade has this weird phantom damage (it is about the same as halberd type weapon at 40 DEX which is a LOT for such a fast weapon), it hurts waaay more than normal katana in PvP and the bleed....the damn bleed is the highest of any weapon in the game. Yeah the attack speed is the same but katanas has so fast attack speed compared to most weapons combined with Chaos blade's dmg is very deadly.
I almost never get beaten by other Katanas but Chaos blade is scary as hell at times.

Hm, that's interesting. Is this phantom damage documented anywhere, or did you just notice it yourself in-game?

One of the best weapons ingame. Top 3 would i say.
1. Dex > str. So also fast castings, pyro as backup
2. Long range!
3. Fast + bleed

Non buffing dex = best weapon
Buffing dex, iaito/uchi > cb till the buff runs out.

- 6 instead of 5 units of weight
- life drain, but good for rtsr

Rarayn wrote:Hm, that's interesting. Is this phantom damage documented anywhere, or did you just notice it yourself in-game?

No, not that I know of but it has been discussed before on the forum and I guarantee it has noticable dmg difference by my own experience.

The 40-60 AR can make a big difference because of how armor/damage is calculated in the game. I can't explain this myself though :oops:
the CB is longer, and it has more bleed than the uchi/laito. Uchi laito has 33 bleed buildup per strike, while the CB has 36.
Personally, i think this weapon is very good. But i rarely use katanas, and when i do, i usually use the uchi. Because it's r2 can be very powerful after a roar.

I definitely would not suggest it for PVE. The other katanas get the job done just as well with no life drain.

In PVP, however, its longer reach and damage, RTSR activation abilities, and it just being a katana makes it one of the best choices if you have the weight and stat requirements.
I'd rather face any other katana in PvP than the Chaos Blade, it can be frightening at times.

@The Letter X:
Hm, not for PVE, huh? What if it's used in a build with Replenishment and other healing miracles? Would it be effective enough then?

If you have access to any healing miracles or have an overflow of Estus, then yes, it would be pretty viable.

I should have been more specific in my answer. For newer players who can't spare the life drain and players that aren't really that comfortable with PVE shouldn't use it. Those who can run through the game even while handicapped on the other hand can use it to no end.

I wouldn't suggest it for PvE because if someone needed a suggestion they would, in general, be new or not comfortable with PvE.