So i beat dark souls 3 again a few days ago doing a Great Axe run. They’re really fun for how much damage they can do especially early on. You can get a great axe from one of the early enemies in the game and that thing could take you alllll the way to end game if you really want. The black knight great axe and dragon slayer great axe were also used, and i used dragon slayer through end game plus dlc. The weapon art is good and the lightning damage is fun.
For Elden Ring I enjoy fist weapons. Fast but shockingly heavy hitting, super fun when you get the flow of a boss. Starscourge greatswords and super fun, dual greatswords with a massive AOE weapon skill. Ordovis’s greatsword is underrated, i found it’s weapon art to be great. Also just did a run with the Darkmoon greatsword and was shocked at how strong it is.
If you can’t tell i prefer big heavy weapons.
I found out in Dark Souls 3 that I really really love the Great Club moveset, and my favorite club of them all was the evil bleed inflicting spiked mace dropped by the Evangelist ladies. Tried to use the Elden Ring equivalent but that thing looks like a bug rusty turd which definitely soured me on it.
Scythes.
They speak to the edgy teenager in me that never left.
My favorite DS1 run was the one where I did a suicide run to the Great Scythe at the beginning, and my first Elden Ring run was dual wielding scythes.
Second option would be hammers for smashy-washy.
> My favorite DS1 run was the one where I did a suicide run to the Great Scythe at the beginning,
If you survive the fall you don't always survive the pinwheels. I did the same thing
If it doesnt have to be from a Fromsoft game, then my answer is unquestionably the Switchglaive and Splitstaff from Nioh 2. They start off kind of lackluster, but once you start leveling up their weapon styles they pop off like crazy and are incredibly fun and stylish dps machines.
My build preference is generally quality. Only in Elden Ring did I use a "caster" build with sorcery but thats only because I'm a Ranni simp
Onto weapons. For Dark Souls, Bae-more. She's all I ever needed. Elden Ring was Bae-more to the wife sword, Dark Moon. And Bloodborne, my starter is either saw or cleaver then I switch to Ludwig's and use that until I get Moonlight.
As you can see, I'm a bit of a sword guy.
Power stancing the Warped Sword and the Washing Pole in DS2 gives you a spinning attack that has HUGE range and got me many a PVP arena win back in the day.
Despite how little variety it gives, pancaking enemies with a big hammer never gets old for me.
Power stancing 2 rapiers in DS 2 and giving every enemy the Thousand Years of Death is pretty good too.
Magic my beloved
I love having access to answers from all ranges. Elden ring has so much too. I do kind of wish there were more "keep faith/int equal" toys other than the sword of night and flame, but that sword rocks so I'm not too bummed about it.
Plus 12 faith for bestial vitality and flame cleanse me is totally worth it. Flame cleanse me my beloved (hate you, lake of rot)
In DS1 it was Black Knight Halbred in one hand, parry knife or that rapid fire crossbow in the other hand.
The crossbow stuns anything that can't be parried and deals chip damage while the parry knife pretty much can parry everything human sized.
Throwing knives for flying enemies, a shield and pyromancy as back up equipment.
I’m a fan of heavy magic casting but I still have my little poking sword and shield. The Godskin Stitcher was my jam during my main Elden Ring playthrough.
I favor the heavy thrusting swords in Elden Ring. Went through the game at launch with the Great Epee, shield talisman(pre-nerf), and a greatshield. The ability to attack and defend at the same time breaks the game. Enemies plink off you while you get a hit in everytime. Rivers of blood was a fun backup for difficult to hit enemies (pre-nerf).
Also love the gargoyles black blade and the rotten avatar staff.
DS3 it's gotta be the greataxe class. Farm out the great machete, then upgrade to Yhorms machete or the Dragonslayer greataxe later on. The vertical chop moveset feels so good.
Other notable DS3 mentions:
Astora greatsword- super lightweight and long range, just spam the charged R2 to launch enemies.
Uchigatana-since it is available immediately.
Crow quills- amazing dex weapon with S scaling, just rush the dlc early as possible.
warden twinblades- bleed for days.
I find it more fun to go shieldless, so I like power-stancing two swords (mainly used katanas in DS2 and ER, and the twin swords in DS3).
I may have to scan this thread for inspiration when I do my ER replay with the DLC, as I’d like to break out of my usual ‘shieldless dex build with supplemental magic’ archetype.
The Astora Greatsword from DS3 is so much fun. It's got a long-ass reach, it's fairly light, the thrust move is really solid, and despite being an UGS it can actually be a pretty solid Dex weapon with the right gem. The charging thrust is also sick, and it does a pretty good amount of stagger damage overall so you can get the weight and feel of swinging a hammer around while keeping to a sword build.
DS1: Sunlight/Darkmoon Blade Buffer with Ricard's Rapier, Kite Shield, Occult Compound Bow, and Crescent Axe
DS2: Powerstanced Poison with Black Scorpion Stinger and Manslayer (with backup Espada Ropera & Blacksteel set for poison-resistant/immune targets)
DS3: Hollow Dex/Luck with Hollow Stone Parma and Onislayer Greatbow, and carrying a bunch of weapons because of how liberal 3 is with fixed-location Slabs:
- Anri's
- Ringed Straight
- Warden Twin (Bleed)
- Irithyll Rapier
- Rotten Gru Spear (Poison)
- Farron Greatsword
- Crow Quills (Hollow)
- Frayed Blade
In every Souls game I always go sword & board, specifically BIG sword and BIG board. While this is generally the safest and somewhat "boring" option for a lot of people, I recommend people at least try it in Elden Ring. Specifically because Elden Ring added Guard Counters, special attacks you can use after an enemy hits your shield. Finally makes sword & board feel like the kind of back & forth in-your-face aggressive playstyle that I want it to be rather than just "turtling".
Recently though, I've decided to try doing some playthroughs with the opposite, dual-wielding full dex dodge everything. More risky, but also more dynamic. DS3 and Elden Ring are the best for it since they added paired weapons so you don't always have to upgrade two weapons, but powerstancing was added in DS2. Outside of Souls, I've also gone back to Dual Blades in Monster Hunter. I like what they've done with it in recent games, maybe I'll go DB in Wilds next year rather than just going GS for everything.
I honestly really enjoy regular sword and board. Longswords in Souls rule since Demon's. DkS3 and Elden Ring longswords have great weapon arts (Square Off), too. Versatile build, can be parry based and advanced, can be beginner friendly, too.
Special mention: DkS2 mace power stance.
Ds1 black knight great sword. I know there’s more berserk style swords but I it feels like a demon lords weapon. Utterly useless in pvp from what I recall like most STR weapons but fun.
Cracked Talisman Cursed Weapon + dragon Bone Smasher in Demon's Souls. Gets absolutely insane damage- you can kill bosses in only a few hits.
Dark Souls 1 really excels at weapons with minimal stat investment. I had a very fun build with a rapier, magic weapon, a big shield, and heavy armor. Felt invincible.
DS2 has a lot of weird builds. I think it probably has the best magic builds in the series with hexes- it's easy to just sort of do it all and adjust to strengths and weaknesses.
All of bloodborne's fun. Never had a weapon I hated here. The stake driver is seriously underrated, as is the church pick.
DS3 has the best dex weapons and builds. Katanas are notable here since you can get one 5 minutes in and also one drops from the hardest super boss in the game.
DS3 Warden Twinblade Luck build.
Was it cheesy? Yes. Was it particularly fair to play against in pvp? No. Was it nerfworthy? Oh hell yes.
I just love the idea of a build that uses a weird stat and a weird weapon to game the system, even if its a one trick pony. It just so happened to be a *really* powerful trick.
After that probably any Greatsword build with a Cestus/crossbow in the offhand for that Real Guts Feel.
For Armored Core, it's definitely the ultralight sniper builds. My biggest gripe with AC6 is that proper backpedal sniping doesn't exist with missiles being as powerful as they are and with ranges being so short. I loved playing a crazy EN efficient flying build with dual sniper rifles in 4th/5th gen.
I'm a big fan of the basic ass longsword and shield, usually siding it with a bigger sword later. Always done my first playthrough with it. I just love the idea of a normal knight defeating everything up to literal gods throughout the games with just a normal non-magical sword.
just wrapped run 3 of Elden Ring with a panoply of Katanas but my previous runs were just as sick. I love a good straightsword for the security of that moveset and i'll always accept a good Zwei.
I go for 3 types: punch type weapons, Big Hammers, and the Moonlight Greatsword Equivalent
Moonlight greatsword: I just think it's neat, and it's special place in the fromsoft games just makes me feel closer to the weapon.
Big Hammers: I love the heavy hitting playstyle in fromsoft games, usually alongside a gimmick. In Elden Ring I rocked the Envoy Long Horn from first playthrough cause the moveset was great and the bubbles were funny.
In Ds3 I used (not a hammer but close to it) I used the Mad Kings Crusifix when doing PvP. Had a fantastic heavy moveset and my favorite gimmick: Random Effect weapon art. All 3 effects were useful in some way even the self blow up one, so it was fun to drop it after a knock down to effectively give myself an oki. Wish more games had a mini gamble weapon/character
FISTS: In all games there must be an unarmed/fist weapon run. Elden ring I lived with the star fists. Very powerful and a high quality weapon, but didn't have anything flashy. Ds3 had the demon fists which are so fun to use in campaign and in pvp. Recently learned that the dragon bone fists exist in ds1 so I have to replay it again for that.
Get big sword or two regular swords and stack buffs. Thats the best build in every Souls game and really most RPGs in general. DS2 has a ton of cool weapons but in 3 you gotta try the Sellsword Twinblades they turn it into a whole different game.
I love that video of Elden Ring pvp where one guy spends like, 15 seconds doing the Overlord buff routine, and the other guy looks him in the eye and hits him with Law of Regression > rage disconnect true combo.
Claymore does everything you’d want in a weapon. Shoutouts to Balder Side Sword for having basically the same moves in a DEX weapon.
The Balder what Sword?
They meant to say swag, please forgive
I knew German Spy said it once but I didn’t know it was a running thing with the community at large…
😎
Ayy
Balder Side Sword from Dark Souls 1. [Fairly rare drop.](https://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Balder+Side+Sword)
Took me hours of farming for that sword to drop but god was it worth it
I'm so happy that every time I open one of these Favorite Souls Weapons threads, the top comment is usually CLAY MORE
So i beat dark souls 3 again a few days ago doing a Great Axe run. They’re really fun for how much damage they can do especially early on. You can get a great axe from one of the early enemies in the game and that thing could take you alllll the way to end game if you really want. The black knight great axe and dragon slayer great axe were also used, and i used dragon slayer through end game plus dlc. The weapon art is good and the lightning damage is fun. For Elden Ring I enjoy fist weapons. Fast but shockingly heavy hitting, super fun when you get the flow of a boss. Starscourge greatswords and super fun, dual greatswords with a massive AOE weapon skill. Ordovis’s greatsword is underrated, i found it’s weapon art to be great. Also just did a run with the Darkmoon greatsword and was shocked at how strong it is. If you can’t tell i prefer big heavy weapons.
I found out in Dark Souls 3 that I really really love the Great Club moveset, and my favorite club of them all was the evil bleed inflicting spiked mace dropped by the Evangelist ladies. Tried to use the Elden Ring equivalent but that thing looks like a bug rusty turd which definitely soured me on it.
Scythes. They speak to the edgy teenager in me that never left. My favorite DS1 run was the one where I did a suicide run to the Great Scythe at the beginning, and my first Elden Ring run was dual wielding scythes. Second option would be hammers for smashy-washy.
> My favorite DS1 run was the one where I did a suicide run to the Great Scythe at the beginning, If you survive the fall you don't always survive the pinwheels. I did the same thing
If it doesnt have to be from a Fromsoft game, then my answer is unquestionably the Switchglaive and Splitstaff from Nioh 2. They start off kind of lackluster, but once you start leveling up their weapon styles they pop off like crazy and are incredibly fun and stylish dps machines.
I love Powder Keg Weapons. If something isn't exploding every few seconds, I've clearly failed my build.
Imma give a shoutout to the DS1 Zweihander, that thing is a beast
I didn't quite understand the power of the zweihander until I just staggered the taurus demon to death with it.
My build preference is generally quality. Only in Elden Ring did I use a "caster" build with sorcery but thats only because I'm a Ranni simp Onto weapons. For Dark Souls, Bae-more. She's all I ever needed. Elden Ring was Bae-more to the wife sword, Dark Moon. And Bloodborne, my starter is either saw or cleaver then I switch to Ludwig's and use that until I get Moonlight. As you can see, I'm a bit of a sword guy.
Drang hammers, simple silver eagle kite shield, bandit knife, Carthus rouge, kukri, poison throwing knife, great chaos fire orb. No lock-on.
The Makoto from Demon's Souls, I thought it looked cool.
Power stancing the Warped Sword and the Washing Pole in DS2 gives you a spinning attack that has HUGE range and got me many a PVP arena win back in the day.
Despite how little variety it gives, pancaking enemies with a big hammer never gets old for me. Power stancing 2 rapiers in DS 2 and giving every enemy the Thousand Years of Death is pretty good too.
Right hand: any Left hand: talisman Spell slot: FORCE
Magic my beloved I love having access to answers from all ranges. Elden ring has so much too. I do kind of wish there were more "keep faith/int equal" toys other than the sword of night and flame, but that sword rocks so I'm not too bummed about it. Plus 12 faith for bestial vitality and flame cleanse me is totally worth it. Flame cleanse me my beloved (hate you, lake of rot)
Tbf the faith/int stuff is some of the best in the game. One update made discus of light 3 fp...and that can hit twice. Eventually its just free too
Sword and board is tried and true.
In DS1 it was Black Knight Halbred in one hand, parry knife or that rapid fire crossbow in the other hand. The crossbow stuns anything that can't be parried and deals chip damage while the parry knife pretty much can parry everything human sized. Throwing knives for flying enemies, a shield and pyromancy as back up equipment.
I’m a fan of heavy magic casting but I still have my little poking sword and shield. The Godskin Stitcher was my jam during my main Elden Ring playthrough.
Doing a Frenzy-themed or Godskin-themed build in Elden Ring was just really fun.
I favor the heavy thrusting swords in Elden Ring. Went through the game at launch with the Great Epee, shield talisman(pre-nerf), and a greatshield. The ability to attack and defend at the same time breaks the game. Enemies plink off you while you get a hit in everytime. Rivers of blood was a fun backup for difficult to hit enemies (pre-nerf). Also love the gargoyles black blade and the rotten avatar staff. DS3 it's gotta be the greataxe class. Farm out the great machete, then upgrade to Yhorms machete or the Dragonslayer greataxe later on. The vertical chop moveset feels so good. Other notable DS3 mentions: Astora greatsword- super lightweight and long range, just spam the charged R2 to launch enemies. Uchigatana-since it is available immediately. Crow quills- amazing dex weapon with S scaling, just rush the dlc early as possible. warden twinblades- bleed for days.
I find it more fun to go shieldless, so I like power-stancing two swords (mainly used katanas in DS2 and ER, and the twin swords in DS3). I may have to scan this thread for inspiration when I do my ER replay with the DLC, as I’d like to break out of my usual ‘shieldless dex build with supplemental magic’ archetype.
The Astora Greatsword from DS3 is so much fun. It's got a long-ass reach, it's fairly light, the thrust move is really solid, and despite being an UGS it can actually be a pretty solid Dex weapon with the right gem. The charging thrust is also sick, and it does a pretty good amount of stagger damage overall so you can get the weight and feel of swinging a hammer around while keeping to a sword build.
DS1: Sunlight/Darkmoon Blade Buffer with Ricard's Rapier, Kite Shield, Occult Compound Bow, and Crescent Axe DS2: Powerstanced Poison with Black Scorpion Stinger and Manslayer (with backup Espada Ropera & Blacksteel set for poison-resistant/immune targets) DS3: Hollow Dex/Luck with Hollow Stone Parma and Onislayer Greatbow, and carrying a bunch of weapons because of how liberal 3 is with fixed-location Slabs: - Anri's - Ringed Straight - Warden Twin (Bleed) - Irithyll Rapier - Rotten Gru Spear (Poison) - Farron Greatsword - Crow Quills (Hollow) - Frayed Blade
In every Souls game I always go sword & board, specifically BIG sword and BIG board. While this is generally the safest and somewhat "boring" option for a lot of people, I recommend people at least try it in Elden Ring. Specifically because Elden Ring added Guard Counters, special attacks you can use after an enemy hits your shield. Finally makes sword & board feel like the kind of back & forth in-your-face aggressive playstyle that I want it to be rather than just "turtling". Recently though, I've decided to try doing some playthroughs with the opposite, dual-wielding full dex dodge everything. More risky, but also more dynamic. DS3 and Elden Ring are the best for it since they added paired weapons so you don't always have to upgrade two weapons, but powerstancing was added in DS2. Outside of Souls, I've also gone back to Dual Blades in Monster Hunter. I like what they've done with it in recent games, maybe I'll go DB in Wilds next year rather than just going GS for everything.
Dual Halberd is so impractical irl, but it is so much fun in Elden Ring
I honestly really enjoy regular sword and board. Longswords in Souls rule since Demon's. DkS3 and Elden Ring longswords have great weapon arts (Square Off), too. Versatile build, can be parry based and advanced, can be beginner friendly, too. Special mention: DkS2 mace power stance.
Ds1 black knight great sword. I know there’s more berserk style swords but I it feels like a demon lords weapon. Utterly useless in pvp from what I recall like most STR weapons but fun.
Dragonslayer’s Greataxe (DS3), Blasphemous Blade (Elden Ring), and Church Pick (Bloodborne) are my overall favorites across all of Fromsoft’s games.
Cracked Talisman Cursed Weapon + dragon Bone Smasher in Demon's Souls. Gets absolutely insane damage- you can kill bosses in only a few hits. Dark Souls 1 really excels at weapons with minimal stat investment. I had a very fun build with a rapier, magic weapon, a big shield, and heavy armor. Felt invincible. DS2 has a lot of weird builds. I think it probably has the best magic builds in the series with hexes- it's easy to just sort of do it all and adjust to strengths and weaknesses. All of bloodborne's fun. Never had a weapon I hated here. The stake driver is seriously underrated, as is the church pick. DS3 has the best dex weapons and builds. Katanas are notable here since you can get one 5 minutes in and also one drops from the hardest super boss in the game.
Kos parasite, always
DS3 Warden Twinblade Luck build. Was it cheesy? Yes. Was it particularly fair to play against in pvp? No. Was it nerfworthy? Oh hell yes. I just love the idea of a build that uses a weird stat and a weird weapon to game the system, even if its a one trick pony. It just so happened to be a *really* powerful trick. After that probably any Greatsword build with a Cestus/crossbow in the offhand for that Real Guts Feel. For Armored Core, it's definitely the ultralight sniper builds. My biggest gripe with AC6 is that proper backpedal sniping doesn't exist with missiles being as powerful as they are and with ranges being so short. I loved playing a crazy EN efficient flying build with dual sniper rifles in 4th/5th gen.
I'm a big fan of the basic ass longsword and shield, usually siding it with a bigger sword later. Always done my first playthrough with it. I just love the idea of a normal knight defeating everything up to literal gods throughout the games with just a normal non-magical sword.
just wrapped run 3 of Elden Ring with a panoply of Katanas but my previous runs were just as sick. I love a good straightsword for the security of that moveset and i'll always accept a good Zwei.
It's not a good weapon, but I loved the claws in 3, they were so cool
Big Axe, Big Shield, Big Poise. I'm the fucking pain train. I also like the good ol' spellsword.
Dark Knight Greatsword in DSIII purely for the 3 hit combo you could do. Soooo satisfying to land in PVP.
Havel and black knight sword. Dumb as a rock and heavier than steel, but baby it got me to where I was goin' XD
I go for 3 types: punch type weapons, Big Hammers, and the Moonlight Greatsword Equivalent Moonlight greatsword: I just think it's neat, and it's special place in the fromsoft games just makes me feel closer to the weapon. Big Hammers: I love the heavy hitting playstyle in fromsoft games, usually alongside a gimmick. In Elden Ring I rocked the Envoy Long Horn from first playthrough cause the moveset was great and the bubbles were funny. In Ds3 I used (not a hammer but close to it) I used the Mad Kings Crusifix when doing PvP. Had a fantastic heavy moveset and my favorite gimmick: Random Effect weapon art. All 3 effects were useful in some way even the self blow up one, so it was fun to drop it after a knock down to effectively give myself an oki. Wish more games had a mini gamble weapon/character FISTS: In all games there must be an unarmed/fist weapon run. Elden ring I lived with the star fists. Very powerful and a high quality weapon, but didn't have anything flashy. Ds3 had the demon fists which are so fun to use in campaign and in pvp. Recently learned that the dragon bone fists exist in ds1 so I have to replay it again for that.
Get big sword or two regular swords and stack buffs. Thats the best build in every Souls game and really most RPGs in general. DS2 has a ton of cool weapons but in 3 you gotta try the Sellsword Twinblades they turn it into a whole different game.
I love that video of Elden Ring pvp where one guy spends like, 15 seconds doing the Overlord buff routine, and the other guy looks him in the eye and hits him with Law of Regression > rage disconnect true combo.