The appeal of Strength builds

Im fond of my STR build, ive used it a lot and its EXTREMELY effective for PvP and i can get away with it being versatile however i always find myself using my Dex build way more and its just preference for me tbh, I enjoy STR builds, i believe they are VERY underused and unappreciated but at the end of the day i prefer fast characters, not because its my comfort zone but its because iv'e allways found the Dex weapons to be cooler and my char looks so awesome with his wanderer coat, elite knight helm, eastern leggings and havel gauntlets. Yes i may use a quality build thats 28/40 but to me hes still a dominant Dex build since its how he started and thats the majority of weps he uses.

What about you guys? What do you like more? Crushing enemies with massive weapons or lacerating with a rapier?

I tend to prefer quality/dex weapons for serious pvp, I just don't have the patience to learn all the subtleties of timing required for effective use of strength weapons. I love the balder side sword and also enjoy dual wielding a spear and claymore (either demon's or sks).

For my sl55 darkwraith though it's a chaos rapier, hornet ring, pyromancy and many dung pies!

Lol You little devil!
 " sl55 darkwraith though it's a chaos rapier, hornet ring, pyromancy and many dung pies!"


And tbh i find learning a weapon is pretty interesting and fun tbh, It wasnt till i started experimenting back in the early days that i learned the axe class weapons have extremely good stun lock potential and i need to admit it is a pain to get use to ultra greatswords

I like the Rapier and Murakumo. The Mura is heavy and swings like a strength weapon. My 55 Darkstalker uses a Rapier and Shotel.

i think pilgrim has it right, most people just dont have the patience to learn how to use str weapons, its the reason most people that have str weapons cant use them correctly and do nothing but fish for a bs. i use str weapons because i find them more fun to use and ive always been fond of the bigger weapons since i started playing games like gauntlet.

Being good at using greathammers/axes is extremely satisfying.
Ultragreatswords are probably the easier weapons to use in a strength build.

Laveidem wrote:Being good at using greathammers/axes is extremely satisfying.
Ultragreatswords are probably the easier weapons to use in a strength build.

I have trouble against good players with then since UGSs are easily punishable but dtiop one hit can help massively

Lacerate people with a rapier.

I dislike the slowness that is forced upon the strength weapons.

I would definitely be willing to create a strength build though to try and improve- it would be an interesting challenge. I've only come up against one or two really good strength users in PvP but their timing and movement was so impeccable that I had absolutely no answer for it, I would love to try and develop skills like that.

Just like Reim, I also prefer Rapier and Shotel, but I've been trying to master the Longsword and some other quality weapons. I prefer speed over raw power, but there are situations, where raw power is much more useful to have, such as ganks.

Str weapons, even the small ones, like Hand Axe, or Mace are great, but the reason they are underused is thanks to the fact that most people don't know how to use them.

If you fight a player with Str weapon, chances are he will fall into one of the following categories.

1. Backstab fishers.
This is pretty self-explanatory, but just in case. These are the most common Str users, usually with Great/Large Club, or a Great Axe, with Havel's Armor, usually also with DWGR and Hornet Ring and all they try to do is backstab you, in hopes of one shotting you.

2. Stunlockers.
These guys vary in armor and roll speeds, but all they want to do is stunlock you to death. Usually by playing unlocked with a weapon, that has huge horizontal attacks, like Zweihander. While they may sound easy to defeat by using roll backstabs and parrying, most of them are clever enough to learn Dead Angles.

Both of these are pretty annoying to fight. Not because of difficulty, but because of their numbers and shear repetetivness.

There is the super shiny rare case of actually good Str user, that knows his spacing, how to evade getting toggle backstabbed and who is generally one of your worst nightmares if you want to fight melee. These guys are usually good enough to trash you with a Hand Axe, so if you see them bring out DGM, you know your days are numbered.

The above two categories are most often seen Str users. This makes people think Str weapons are only good for "cheap" tactics like bs fishing and thus they avoid them and sway towards Dex, or spells. Also, most gankers use Str weapons, which makes people dislike Str weapons even more.
All IMO, of course. ^^

Laveidem wrote:

Teh Kitten´s Cat wrote:Lacerate people with a rapier.

I dislike the slowness that is forced upon the strength weapons.

 Could you imagine a Man-Serpent Greatsword with the swingspeed of a dagger?

Yes.
There exists a glitch that allows you to swap moveset to a different weapon. For example, I saw a Zweihander and DSS that had a Straight Sword moveset, but they retained their damage and stagger properties.

Since I tend to play a defensive/counter-attacking playstyle, using STR weapons really makes this fun. I normally just use the Zwei because of its rolling stabs and awesome overhand R2, both very effective counters, and having to master the timing and range is pretty challenging.

Its especially fun since most people just backstab fish, or do it more when they see a STR weapon.

But thats where unlocking, kicking, pyro, and counter bs come into play.

Overall more people should us STR weapons, and shy away from the nostalgia of DEX weapons.

Frankly, the only reason that's stopping me from adding STR weapons to my arsenal is that so many of them are blunt weapons. If more of them had blades then I'd be more inclined to use them.


I only use the Zweihander, Greatsword, Greataxe, though I forgot the Greataxe existed until just recently so I've yet to officially add it, and the Battle Axe. I might add Gough's Greatbow to this, I've seen some funny stuff from people using it in 1v1 videos lol.

I hate blunt weapons and Axes myself. I love swords. However blunt weapons wreck shields, which is kinda nice to have.

I pick weapons based more on specific capabilities and which skills they reward rather than how fast or slow they are or what stat they scale with.  I like Zweihander not because it's a big sword, but because it can kill in a couple mix-ups and it has good tools to deal with stuff that other ultra weapons have trouble with.

I mostly stick to fast weapons, though, because I'm a tierwhore.

Saturday-Saint wrote:I mostly stick to fast weapons, though, because I'm a tierwhore.

Wut dus tierwhore mean pls?
Seriously.

Somebody who only uses powerful builds.

I don't fully comprehend that. Every build is as powerful as is it's user. I have been once utterly obliterated by a Dagger user who didn't do a single critical to me. It was nowehere near as powerful as was my build, in terms of numbers, but he still got a perfect win on me.

I don't really know how to respond to your post.  Your logic displays a gross misunderstanding of competition on a level so fundamental that I just don't know where to start in correcting it.  I guess I can start by pointing out that the fact that you lost to a dagger once does not mean it is a good weapon.

He means tryhard builds.

RANT wrote:He means tryhard builds.

Ah, that's a term I understand.
Thanks guys.  

Saturday-Saint wrote:I don't really know how to respond to your post.  Your logic displays a gross misunderstanding of competition on a level so fundamental that I just don't know where to start in correcting it.  I guess I can start by pointing out that the fact that you lost to a dagger once does not mean it is a good weapon.

I'm not sure you know how to respond to anything anymore.  I don't think Sentiel was disrespectful in any way, and for you to say he has a gross misunderstanding of competition on a fundamental level is just obnoxious.

Also, I think you can replace the word "tier" with "attention".

This is the only Dark Souls related site I visit and it's the only video game community I am a part of. I'm still not familiar with many terms and if a new one pops up, I rather ask than try to find the answer myself. I remember the last time I searched for it myself and it created quite a flame in some swag/yolo thread.

The word "tier" is exactly what piqued my interested, because only relevation I can think of is Poise, or roll speeds, labeled as tiers. Thus the questions. I apologize if it was poorly written and offended anyone.

No..it didn't...and no it wasn't. And sorry sentinel, I didn't mean to be all up in your business and stuff. Actually, you are someone I try and take examples from on being as respectful as I can. Lord knows I slip up lol. Sorry again.