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[KittenMaster]

Well, they have +10 weapons while I'm not. Seems kinda unfair. Co-op in NG+ with NG seems also stupid, with the upgraded boss HP and low level weapons and gems, you do shit damage.

You don't have to be NG+ to get +10 weapons or excellent gems.

And being able to coop into NG+ only happens if you're too high of a level to coop with everybody else in NG. It's actually an amazing feature that lets you not have to worry about whether you're overleveled or not for coop.

 

[Psychoward]

Holy blade is a very respectable weapon and it combines well with the characteristics of the cane.

Alright only thing holding me back is the initial cost and the fact that it might not suit my playstyle. And the 16 strength of course.

Also how throwaway are blood shards and twin blood shards? Currently my TC is at the level right before I need to use blood chunks, and I figured if I wanted to try out different weapons for my second main hand I'd uparade them to a similar level to get a better feel for the damage they do.

Finally, is the rapid poison blood gem good or should I switched it out for something else?

Edit: how likely is it that I miss the Burial Blade and blades of mercy completely?

 

[Fancy Clown]

Yes. Yes it is.

Hmmm that's kinda disappointing. I thought this place was supposed to be the epicenter of everything? There's a Iosefka copypaste hunter, a brainsucker, some bug things and a really small building...

The old dude from that one cutscene gesturing for you to jump off the bridge, and then jumping off the bridge for the boss was really cool though.

 

[Mister Megative]

This game, you guys. I recognize the Witcher 3 is amazing and I love it. But when I start playing it, I find myself wishing after a couple hours I was playing Bloodborne. Dat combat. Dat lore. Tried going back to DS2.....didn't work. The combat in both is like wading through peanut butter compared to Bloodborne.

Anyone else feel my pain?

 

[Windom Earle]

For Chikage you mean?

Isn't it wise to also raise Skill since you can't feasibly always use it's 2 hand mode due to health drains?

I mean that for a min/max skill build your BT is pretty high and for a BT build you went over the soft cap of 25 skill. No big deal though. Would not go higher with skill now if you want BT though.

 

[Laughing Banana]

It really annoys me, I'm going a skill build and outside of the Threaded Cane I haven't found anothe melee weapon that satisfies my playstyle of wanting to constantly dodge in and out and get some fast hits in to regain health. And looking at the wiki, the three other skill weapons are Blades of Mercy, Burial Blade and Reiterspallach, the former two being really late acquisitions and the latter having a gun form and I have no points in bloodtinge (however i do have the blunderbuss solelt to parry so would that work or is it too bloostinge focused?) Meanwhile strength characters get the kirkhammer, saw cleaver, saw spear, axe, stake driver, rifle spear and Ludwig's Holy blade at the same time while I have nothing except the TC :/

Saying STR is favored over SKL in Bloodborne is flatout wrong in my opinion. If anything, the game favors SKL build way, way more.

First, Visceral damage calculates SKL and only SKL in the stat department to raise its damage. Stupid move from FROM, imo, since this gimp any build with low SKL quite a lot.

As well, SKL has Threaded Cane, Saw Spear (its a quality weapon with a SKL bias), Ludwig (it would be more beneficial to raise SKL for this first and let STR just sits on 16, again, so that you can benefit more from higher Visceral damage), Blades of Mercy, Rifle Spear (why would you call this a STR weapon? It's clearly a SKL weapon), Reiterpallasch, Burial Blade, and throw Chikage in here as well since it benefits from SKL in its 1 handed form, all fantastic weapons WITH the undeniably HUGE advantage of much higher Visceral Damage at your disposal.

And--this is my personal view--I think only the Axe and Saw Cleaver is legitimate to be called very good in the STR weapons department. Logarius is way too slow and clunky and it doesn't have the range, and Kirkhammer is quite unreliable in terms in damage dealing since, unlike Burial Blade, it needs to hit in a "sweet spot" in its 2-handed form to cause the maximum damage and at times it can be hard to make sure that happens. Stake Driver is very close range and it's R2 charge, while very powerful, is very, very situational due to its charge-up period.

SKL on the other hand has it all; stagger ability (for example, BoM), rapid attacks, range (Rifle Spear, Threaded Cane, Burial Blade), AND visceral damage.

Alright only thing holding me back is the initial cost and the fact that it might not suit my playstyle. And the 16 strength of course.

Also how throwaway are blood shards and twin blood shards? Currently my TC is at the level right before I need to use blood chunks, and I figured if I wanted to try out different weapons for my second main hand I'd uparade them to a similar level to get a better feel for the damage they do.

Finally, is the rapid poison blood gem good or should I switched it out for something else?

Edit: how likely is it that I miss the Burial Blade and blades of mercy completely?

Throw them away, hahaha, since you can buy them (well for Twin you need to wait a bit) in the shop for 2000/10000 echoes respectively, which is paltry especially end-game/NG+.

Poison stuff is mostly useless since very few enemies are weak against poison and against those it'll be better if you just use Poison Knives. Besides, it takes up slots which is way, way, way better for stuff like %attack up gems.

What do you mean miss? Have you completed Eileen quest? And Burial Blade is hard to miss since if you pick 2 out of 3 ending you're practically guaranteed to have access to it. And besides, Chalice Dungeons offer you the chance to get different versions of them which you may even consider superior than the normal versions.

I mean that for a min/max skill build your BT is pretty high and for a BT build you went over the soft cap of 25 skill. No big deal though. Would not go higher with skill now if you want BT though.

Hmmm.

I think I am gonna use Reiterpallasch + Repeating Pistol for my main, with Threaded Cane subbed in for my secondary. Later on I am gonna raise Evelyn too since why not, hahaha.

 

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

Saying STR is favored over SKL in Bloodborne is flatout wrong in my opinion. If anything, the game favors SKL build way, way more.

First, Visceral damage calculates SKL and only SKL in the stat department to raise its damage. Stupid move from FROM, imo, since this gimp any build with low SKL quite a lot.

As well, SKL has Threaded Cane, Saw Spear (its a quality weapon with a SKL bias), Ludwig (it would be more beneficial to raise SKL for this first and let STR just sits on 16, again, so that you can benefit more from higher Visceral damage), Blades of Mercy, Rifle Spear (why would you call this a STR weapon? It's clearly a SKL weapon), Reiterpallasch, Burial Blade, and throw Chikage in here as well since it benefits from SKL in its 1 handed form, all fantastic weapons WITH the undeniably HUGE advantage of much higher Visceral Damage at your disposal.

I'm pretty sure viscerals do scale with STR just not as well as they scale with SKL. Overall I agree the game favors SKL builds for this reason alone but I don't think the gap is huge. My two favorite weapons of the ones I've used are 1) cane, 2) Kirkhammer. The latter has its advantages: first the damage is bonkers if you level up your strength and upgrade the weapon, way higher than the cane/whip can manage; second, in hammer form it staggers enemies way more than the skill weapons do. Again, overall I'd take a skill build with the whip for the visceral advantage and insane reach of the whip, but some enemies and bosses are easier with heavy artillery I think. It's fun to try each as they require pretty different playstyles.

 

[iRAWRasaurus]

This game, you guys. I recognize the Witcher 3 is amazing and I love it. But when I start playing it, I find myself wishing after a couple hours I was playing Bloodborne. Dat combat. Dat lore. Tried going back to DS2.....didn't work. The combat in both is like wading through peanut butter compared to Bloodborne.

Anyone else feel my pain?

The souls series and Bloodborne kinda ruin all combat for me.

 

[JadedWriter]

Alright only thing holding me back is the initial cost and the fact that it might not suit my playstyle. And the 16 strength of course.

Also how throwaway are blood shards and twin blood shards? Currently my TC is at the level right before I need to use blood chunks, and I figured if I wanted to try out different weapons for my second main hand I'd uparade them to a similar level to get a better feel for the damage they do.

Finally, is the rapid poison blood gem good or should I switched it out for something else?

Edit: how likely is it that I miss the Burial Blade and blades of mercy completely?

Most enemies don't get poisoned so don't even bother with that gem, that's like a PvP thing. Go through enough areas and farm in the chalice dungeons and blood stone shards aren't rare, Twin Shards are a bit rarer, but can be bought at the insight shop as well, same with chunks, they're just expensive. Burial Blade you get as long as you fight the first final boss or get lucky and find one in a chalice dungeon, BoM aren't that hard as long as you at least talk to Eileen and advance her quest a bit, even if she does die to the first hunter in that fight you can still buy it for 40,000 echoes. Pretty much in my playthrough I got LHB to +6 before I stopped using it and the cane and BoM are +9...I definitely know the cane is...BoM might be +7 or 8 so it's enough for about 3 weapons to get some good upgrades.

 

[Laughing Banana]

I'm pretty sure viscerals do scale with STR just not as well as they scale with SKL. Overall I agree the game favors SKL builds for this reason alone but I don't think the gap is huge. My two favorite weapons of the ones I've used are 1) cane, 2) Kirkhammer. The latter has its advantages: first the damage is bonkers if you level up your strength and upgrade the weapon, way higher than the cane/whip can manage; second, in hammer form it staggers enemies way more than the skill weapons do. Again, overall I'd take a skill build with the whip for the visceral advantage and insane reach of the whip, but some enemies and bosses are easier with heavy artillery I think. It's fun to try each as they require pretty different playstyles.

That is why I added in my view, hehehe.

I like Kirkhammer, and in my opinion it is undoubtedly the coolest weapon in both concepts and looks, but alas for me it just doesn't do enough. The stagger is unreliable sometimes (in fact, they often just go through its attacks like nothing, like for example the zombie werewolves in Yahargul or just werewolves in general) and for some types of enemies BoM just staggers better (the Bloodlicker, Werewolves, Casket enemies, various humanoids, etc). Again, just my view of the weapon though I am sure with proper gems and whatnot it can be very devastating (but then again, you can say this too for every weapon in Bloodborne)

Also, for the bolded, hmmmmmmmm................ I can't honestly think of anyone/thing I'd rather have a "heavy artillery" to fight them against, so far, hahaha. Cannon is nice for Amygdala or Ebrietas but Repeating Pistol/Evelyn can also do the job very nicely--arguably even better--though I suppose it's not really fair to compare them since Repeating Pistol/Evelyn is Bloodtinge and not Strength. Also, I'd consider Burial Blade "heavy artillery" weapon too, hehehe, and arguably it does a much better job at doing so compared to Kirkhammer and perhaps *even* the Axe (its charged R2 is just *insane* with exceptional range and knockdown power, haven't seen anything else like it in the game outside Axe's Spin to Win)

Most enemies don't get poisoned so don't even bother with that gem, that's like a PvP thing. Go through enough areas and farm in the chalice dungeons and blood stone shards aren't rare, Twin Shards are a bit rarer, but can be bought at the insight shop as well, same with chunks, they're just expensive. Burial Blade you get as long as you fight the first final boss or get lucky and find one in a chalice dungeon, BoM aren't that hard as long as you at least talk to Eileen and advance her quest a bit, even if she does die to the first hunter in that fight you can still buy it for 40,000 echoes. Pretty much in my playthrough I got LHB to +6 before I stopped using it and the cane and BoM are +9...I definitely know the cane is...BoM might be +7 or 8 so it's enough for about 3 weapons to get some good upgrades.

Only if you pick up the Crow Badge, I think.

Also, no need to spend Insights to buy Twin Bloodstone Shards since you can just buy it at the bath shop for 10.000 a pop, a paltry cost.

Need to get Cosmic Watcher Badge first though.

 

[Psychoward]

Most enemies don't get poisoned so don't even bother with that gem, that's like a PvP thing. Go through enough areas and farm in the chalice dungeons and blood stone shards aren't rare, Twin Shards are a bit rarer, but can be bought at the insight shop as well, same with chunks, they're just expensive. Burial Blade you get as long as you fight the first final boss or get lucky and find one in a chalice dungeon, BoM aren't that hard as long as you at least talk to Eileen and advance her quest a bit, even if she does die to the first hunter in that fight you can still buy it for 40,000 echoes. Pretty much in my playthrough I got LHB to +6 before I stopped using it and the cane and BoM are +9...I definitely know the cane is...BoM might be +7 or 8 so it's enough for about 3 weapons to get some good upgrades.

Assuming Eileen's the person I talked to in Central Yharnam, she didn't give me any quest? She was just like, what's up Hunter , gave me a gesture and maybe an item and then let me go on my way.

Saying STR is favored over SKL in Bloodborne is flatout wrong in my opinion. If anything, the game favors SKL build way, way more.

First, Visceral damage calculates SKL and only SKL in the stat department to raise its damage. Stupid move from FROM, imo, since this gimp any build with low SKL quite a lot.

As well, SKL has Threaded Cane, Saw Spear (its a quality weapon with a SKL bias), Ludwig (it would be more beneficial to raise SKL for this first and let STR just sits on 16, again, so that you can benefit more from higher Visceral damage), Blades of Mercy, Rifle Spear (why would you call this a STR weapon? It's clearly a SKL weapon), Reiterpallasch, Burial Blade, and throw Chikage in here as well since it benefits from SKL in its 1 handed form, all fantastic weapons WITH the undeniably HUGE advantage of much higher Visceral Damage at your disposal.

And--this is my personal view--I think only the Axe and Saw Cleaver is legitimate to be called very good in the STR weapons department. Logarius is way too slow and clunky and it doesn't have the range, and Kirkhammer is quite unreliable in terms in damage dealing since, unlike Burial Blade, it needs to hit in a "sweet spot" in its 2-handed form to cause the maximum damage and at times it can be hard to make sure that happens. Stake Driver is very close range and it's R2 charge, while very powerful, is very, very situational due to its charge-up period.

SKL on the other hand has it all; stagger ability (for example, BoM), rapid attacks, range (Rifle Spear, Threaded Cane, Burial Blade), AND visceral damage.

Didn't realize Saw Spear was so skill based, my b

Also I figured the Rifle Spear would only be a good weapon if I combined bloodtinge with it which I didn't really intend on doing, I just meant solely skill-based weapons. All I'm really putting points in to is Skill, Vitality and Endurance.

 

[JadedWriter]

Only if you pick up the Crow Badge, I think.

Also, no need to spend Insights to buy Twin Bloodstone Shards since you can just buy it at the bath shop for 10.000 a pop, a paltry cost.

Need to get Cosmic Watcher Badge first though.

Yeah even if you don't kill Henryk it eventually just winds up being there unless my game got weird. I never really needed to buy Twin Bloodstone shards. Kill enough of those wandering madness things and farm from higher level enemies you'll eventually just have enough of them, though if you also plan on upgrading your gun as well then...yeah it gets a bit of a pain I would guess. You don't even get the Cosmic Watcher Badge till I think Upper Cathedral Ward? Though I guess with my Skill Bloodtinge character she'll need to buy a few because the sidearm is more important to her than my first character. I have a +5 blunderbuss with like 7 bloodtinge, what's the point lol.

Assuming Eileen's the person I talked to in Central Yharnam, she didn't give me any quest? She was just like, what's up Hunter , gave me a gesture and maybe an item and then let me go on my way.



Didn't realize Saw Spear was so skill based, my b

Also I figured the Rifle Spear would only be a good weapon if I combined bloodtinge with it which I didn't really intend on doing, I just meant solely skill-based weapons. All I'm really putting points in to is Skill, Vitality and Endurance.

If she was dressed like Jon Snow then that's her. She pops back up later where you kill Gascoigne for a fight, I think before the next boss. Rifle Spear is Skill based, bloodtinge don't even come into effect unless you use the transform mode so don't worry about it too much, though I think you need 10 bloodtinge to even use the damn thing. EpicNameBro used it for half his walkthrough so it is a legit weapon, you can't buff it with fire or bolt paper though so if you want you could use the Holy Blade. I did, it's effective, that and the cane is a good combo for the forbidden woods.

 

[Laughing Banana]

Assuming Eileen's the person I talked to in Central Yharnam, she didn't give me any quest? She was just like, what's up, gave me a gesture and maybe an item and then let me go on my way.

That was just the beginning of her quest.

The 2nd one will be activated as soon as you unlock the gate/shortcut in the Grand Cathedral, she will stand next to the Oedon Chapel warning you not to go to Oedon Tomb.

Fight the Hunter there with her help (protip: use poison knives!) and if you manage to do it, the quest will then continue on its last part right after you're clearing Byrgenwerth, in Vicar Amelia's chamber.

The 1nd part will be cut off if you beat Father G without meeting her. The 2nd part will be cut off if you enter Forbidden Woods without completing it. The 3rd part you can just delay as long as you want since it doesn't expire, at least not to my knowledge.

Didn't realize Saw Spear was so skill based, my b

Also I figured the Rifle Spear would only be a good weapon if I combined bloodtinge with it which I didn't really intend on doing, I just meant solely skill-based weapons. All I'm really putting points in to is Skill, Vitality and Endurance.

Saw Spear is not really *really* skill based, it's more of a quality weapon only with more bias to Skill

Rifle Spear's primary point for its gun shooting is not damage but to stagger and even visceral since you can activate it mid combo. Bloodtinge is not really important for it since the damage is meagre anyways, unlike Reiterpallasch. Rifle Spear is weird though since for some reason it cannot be buffed (I don't know why), but it's a great weapon to fight against those insight sucking guys since it's one handed R1 mash is just quick successive thrust thrust thrust thrust.

Yeah even if you don't kill Henryk it eventually just winds up being there unless my game got weird. I never really needed to buy Twin Bloodstone shards. Kill enough of those wandering madness things and farm from higher level enemies you'll eventually just have enough of them, though if you also plan on upgrading your gun as well then...yeah it gets a bit of a pain I would guess. You don't even get the Cosmic Watcher Badge till I think Upper Cathedral Ward? Though I guess with my Skill Bloodtinge character she'll need to buy a few because the sidearm is more important to her than my first character. I have a +5 blunderbuss with like 7 bloodtinge, what's the point lol.

That is weird................. I haven't tried it since (thankfully) I have managed to beat Henryk in all of my characters (thanks poison knives!)

And yeah, no Cosmic Watcher Badge until Upper Cathedral Ward.

Also a side note: the Blunderbuss with high bloodtinge is actually quite devastating, but only if all the bullets hits at the same time

 

[Psychoward]

That was just the beginning of her quest.

The 2nd one will be activated as soon as you unlock the gate/shortcut in the Grand Cathedral, she will stand next to the Oedon Chapel warning you not to go to Oedon Tomb.

Fight the Hunter there with her help (protip: use poison knives!) and if you manage to do it, the quest will then continue on its last part right after you're clearing Byrgenwerth, in Vicar Amelia's chamber.

The 1nd part will be cut off if you beat Father G without meeting her. The 2nd part will be cut off if you enter Forbidden Woods without completing it. The 3rd part you can just delay as long as you want since it doesn't expire, at least not to my knowledge.



Saw Spear is not really *really* skill based, it's more of a quality weapon only with more bias to Skill

Rifle Spear's primary point for its gun shooting is not damage but to stagger and even visceral since you can activate it mid combo. Bloodtinge is not really important for it since the damage is meagre anyways, unlike Reiterpallasch. Rifle Spear is weird though since for some reason it cannot be buffed (I don't know why), but it's a great weapon to fight against those insight sucking guys since it's one handed R1 mash is just quick successive thrust thrust thrust thrust.

Ah, I only met her once so far. I've defeated Vicar Amelia and the Witches and just entered the Forest, am I screwed?

And the Rifle Spear sounds perfect then, what do you mean it can't be buffed though? Like not fortified at all?

 

[NEO0MJ]

That makes you feel lucky? To me her

Spoiler

charge attack

was the only dangerous attack she had. The hit box is so obscenely large that even when I spam dodge I usually still get hit.

I'm ust not a fan of 1HKO moves in general. I usually avoid them well but if I don't I have to restart which can get annoying.

Yes. Yes it is.

I was so surprised. The only thing that came to mind was "That's it?". Maybe they had to rush this area.

 

[Laughing Banana]

Ah, I only met her once so far. I've defeated Vicar Amelia and the Witches and just entered the Forest, am I screwed?

And the Rifle Spear sounds perfect then, what do you mean it can't be buffed though? Like not fortified at all?

If you already enter Forbidden Woods then I think you're cut off from her questline. But to be sure, just check out the immediate area of Oedon Chapel (the area with the abandoned carriage) and see if she's there. If she's not, then yeah you need to go to NG+

Can't be buffed meaning you can't apply Fire/Bolt Paper/Arcane buff for it. It's just bizarre to me since AFAIK it doesn't have additional damage applied to it in its attacks beyond physical unlike BoM/Burial Blade/Logarius Wheel's Arcane.

If you are planning a SKL build though, perhaps it'll be best if you focus on Reiterpallasch, Threaded Cane, or Blade of Mercy to get the most out of your SKL stat. Burial Blade is really cool though and its reach/knockdown power is just immense---but the fact that you need to be practically like, at the end part of end game, to get it, is annoying (well unless you go to Chalice Dungeon at the very least)

 

[Psychoward]

If you already enter Forbidden Woods then I think you're cut off from her questline. But to be sure, just check out the immediate area of Oedon Chapel (the area with the abandoned carriage) and see if she's there. If she's not, then yeah you need to go to NG+

Can't be buffed meaning you can't apply Fire/Bolt Paper for it. It's just bizarre to me since AFAIK it doesn't have additional damage applied to it in its attacks beyond physical unlike BoM/Burial Blade's arcane.

If you are planning a SKL build though, perhaps it'll be best if you focus on Reiterpallasch, Threaded Cane, or Blade of Mercy to get the most out of your SKL stat. Burial Blade is really cool though and its reach/knockdown power is just immense.

oh well, lost blade of mercy anyway it seems , when I try to fast travel to the tomb it says it's not functioning

wouldn't saw spear, ludwig's blade, burial blade and the rifle spear all be better than Reiterpallasch since the former don't need bloodtinge? Also should I put any points in Arcane

finally how can I tell when a weapon uses blunt or thrust damage, Saw Spear has both?

 

[Laughing Banana]

oh well, lost blade of mercy anyway it seems

wouldn't saw spear, ludwig's blade, burial blade and the rifle spear all be better than Reiterpallasch since the former don't need bloodtinge?

To get the most of Saw Spear/Ludwig Blade you need to invest points in STR (although Ludwig in particular is quite devastating even with its STR left at 16 so long as you raise SKL properly), while the Reiterpallasch is an A in Skill and use it as its main offensive stat so it is good if you plan to raise SKL with no investment in STR to possibly save points for other stats. It doesn't really "need" Bloodtinge since its physical attack don't use Bloodtinge at all, just its R2 shooting.

Like the Rifle Spear, Reiterpallasch can also be used to stagger/visceral enemies during attacks since you can also shoot with it mid-combo (think of it as a Hunter Pistol as opposed to Rifle Spear's Blunderbuss). It is also capable of quick thrust attacks (with not-so-bad range) so it is very good to use against the Insight sucking guys as well. With similar Bloodtinge its shooting power is also greater than Evelyn unbuffed with Bone Marrow Ash.

Lorewise it is also understandable why these two are so similar, just look at Rifle Spear's item description

The downside of Reiterpallasch is that it just doesn't have and never will have a potential attack power as high as stuff like Ludwig/Burial blade, and although it can be used in very rapid attacks and thus quite capable of stunlocking enemies with low poise such as unarmored monsters like werewolves or humanoid folks, bigger enemies just don't care and will cut through your attacks to pound you, hahaha, and it doesn't have the range as well especially if you ignore its shooting capabilities.

finally how can I tell when a weapon uses blunt or thrust damage, Saw Spear has both?

Well, you can see easily when weapons use/capable of Thrust damage if they have a... thrusting move Saw Spear's charge and light tap R2 is thrust move, for example, as is Reiterpallasch 1st mode. Kirkhammer 2nd form is all blunt, of course, as is the Axe in all of its movesets I believe.

The only weird child of the bunch is Burial Blade--although it has a stat for Thrust attack but apparently none of its attacks are categorized as Thrust... don't know whats up with that.

 

[Psychoward]

To get the most of Saw Spear/Ludwig Blade you need to invest points in STR (although Ludwig in particular is quite devastating even with its STR left at 16 so long as you raise SKL properly), while the Reiterpallasch is an A in Skill and use it as its main offensive stat so it is good if you plan to raise SKL with no investment in STR to possibly save points for other stats.

Yeah so that's why I thought both were considered strength weapons and still kinda do, since I can't maximize their damage with skill.... right now i'm just going with the threaded cane and rifle spear and seeing how it goes

And results are....... I don't really like tbh. There's just few situations where the spear seems to be useful over the cane/whip. In fact I can't think of any. TC stays winning.

 

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

That is why I added in my view, hehehe.

I like Kirkhammer, and in my opinion it is undoubtedly the coolest weapon in both concepts and looks

Well yeah I think that's a big part of my love for it. It's just fun to literally bring the hammer down on enemies.

Also, for the bolded, hmmmmmmmm................ I can't honestly think of anyone/thing I'd rather have a "heavy artillery" to fight them against, so far, hahaha.

The best example I can think of off the top of my head is the boars. In the forbidden woods kirkhammer completely trivialized them for me: as they stood there and yelled I could get in a charged R2 and an R1 and they were dead before they even did anything. I don't think that'd be possible without such massive damage output (maybe it was and I just never realized it in my SKL playthrough). But for the most part, yeah, I would prefer the whip.

 

[Laughing Banana]

Yeah so that's why I thought both were considered strength weapons and still kinda do, since I can't maximize their damage with skill.... right now i'm just going with the threaded cane and rifle spear and seeing how it goes

And results are....... I don't really like tbh. There's just few situations where the spear seems to be useful over the cane/whip. In fact I can't think of any. TC stays winning.

The Spear's Two-Hand mode Charged R2 attack is exceptionally good for hit and run attacks against single opponents (like Winter Lantern or those insight sucking folks) since, unlike Cane's Whip, it staggers, but for general use the spear is indeed somewhat kind of awkward.

Well yeah I think that's a big part of my love for it. It's just fun to literally bring the hammer down on enemies.


The best example I can think of off the top of my head is the boars. In the forbidden woods kirkhammer completely trivialized them for me: as they stood there and yelled I could get in a charged R2 and an R1 and they were dead before they even did anything. I don't think that'd be possible without such massive damage output (maybe it was and I just never realized it in my SKL playthrough). But for the most part, yeah, I would prefer the whip.

I always play hand-up-your-ass against boar enemies, hahaha, and it's much easier to do using skill weapons since they generally offer much quicker R2 charge attack for easier visceral.

 

[JadedWriter]

oh well, lost blade of mercy anyway it seems , when I try to fast travel to the tomb it says it's not functioning

wouldn't saw spear, ludwig's blade, burial blade and the rifle spear all be better than Reiterpallasch since the former don't need bloodtinge? Also should I put any points in Arcane

finally how can I tell when a weapon uses blunt or thrust damage, Saw Spear has both?

Actually the fact that the tomb lamp isn't functioning means Henryk and Eileen are having their fight so no, you're not cut off from her quest.

 

[NEO0MJ]

Actually the fact that the tomb lamp isn't functioning means Henryk and Eileen are having their fight so no, you're not cut off from her quest.

I don't think it matters. The tomb lamp will remain off permanently.

 

[Burgess_101]

What's the consensus on the Gold Pendant after beating

Spoiler

Vicar Amelia

?

 

[myco666]

I don't think it matters. The tomb lamp will remain off permanently.

Nope. It starts working again after the fight.

 

[NEO0MJ]

Nope. It starts working again after the fight.

Strange. When I beat the Hunter in Cathedral Ward I couldn't use it after the fight.

What's the consensus on the Gold Pendant after beating

Spoiler

Vicar Amelia

?

You just use it as an item and get the blood gem inside. Kinda useful.

 

[KittenMaster]

Yeah so that's why I thought both were considered strength weapons and still kinda do, since I can't maximize their damage with skill.... right now i'm just going with the threaded cane and rifle spear and seeing how it goes

And results are....... I don't really like tbh. There's just few situations where the spear seems to be useful over the cane/whip. In fact I can't think of any. TC stays winning.

For Ludwig's, the Strength points you invest in it don't get wasted since the strength will scale the same as Skill for that weapon. The usefulness of Saw Spear over Threaded Cane is that it has more DPS overall

Spoiler

and has bonus damage against beasts.

Saying STR is favored over SKL in Bloodborne is flatout wrong in my opinion. If anything, the game favors SKL build way, way more.

Skill is only really favored because of the visceral attacks (which for strength matters less since you have a lot of two handed weapons). The game hugely favors raising both stats anyway since the most efficient weapons fall under semi-quality category.

 

[mulac]

stuck on martyr logarious the last 20 or so times. Dont know what it is; i can get him down to half his health but then it all goes wrong.

Very frustrating! Any suggestions welcome...
I am level 82 and favouring sawblade plus fire paper with blunderbuss.

 

[Essay]

I'm pretty sure viscerals do scale with STR just not as well as they scale with SKL.

It seems, from what I've heard and seen tested on reddit/GameFAQs, Viscerals only scale with SKL, runes, buffs, gems and level. Maybe you had hit level scaling breakpoints and confused it for STR?

 

[NEO0MJ]

stuck on martyr logarious the last 20 or so times. Dont know what it is; i can get him down to half his health but then it all goes wrong.

Very frustrating! Any suggestions welcome...
I am level 82 and favouring sawblade plus fire paper with blunderbuss.

Use the pistol, easier to counter with. While he's powering up before the second form do a charge attack while facing his back to perform a visceral attack.

 

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

It seems, from what I've heard and seen tested on reddit/GameFAQs, Viscerals only scale with SKL, runes, buffs, gems and level. Maybe you had hit level scaling breakpoints and confused it for STR?

Yeah, I guess. I just meant that my STR character saw noticeable improvements to his viscerals throughout the game, just not as much as my SKL character did. I interpreted Banana's statement as saying that they wouldn't improve at all.

 

[Laughing Banana]

Skill is only really favored because of the visceral attacks (which for strength matters less since you have a lot of two handed weapons). The game hugely favors raising both stats anyway since the most efficient weapons fall under semi-quality category.

Well all other things being equal you'll get way more mileage with say High Skill Low Strength Ludwig compared to High Strength Low Skill Ludwig.

Yeah, I guess. I just meant that my STR character saw noticeable improvements to his viscerals throughout the game, just not as much as my SKL character did. I interpreted Banana's statement as saying that they wouldn't improve at all.

Well it scales with level too so the improvements you're seeing are because your level being raised rather thsn your Strength.

 

[KittenMaster]

Well all other things being equal you'll get way more mileage with say High Skill Low Strength Ludwig compared to High Strength Low Skill Ludwig.

I was actually advocating that earlier when people were wondering whether it was worth it to put strength to be able to equip Ludwig's at all for a Skill build.

Doesn't mean a build that focuses more on weapons that scale better with strength are completely screwed.

 

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

Well it scales with level too so the improvements you're seeing are because your level being raised rather thsn your Strength.

Yeah that's what Essay said in the post I was replying to. Again, I just meant that STR builds do see their viscerals improve as they level, which was not at all clear from your original post. (That is interesting that that's the mechanism though; back when I looked into it, when I was mystified by my STR character's shitty viscerals again BSB, people didn't seem to have fully figured it out yet.) Now, if they didn't get any better at all as you leveled that would be a different story. My BL4 character hasn't even fought Amelia yet and her viscerals are already approaching futility.

 

[NEO0MJ]

Just reached the final boss. I was worried I might have been too overleved at 80 but I'm taking high damage and am not destroying with my hits so it seems good.

 

[Psychoward]

Actually the fact that the tomb lamp isn't functioning means Henryk and Eileen are having their fight so no, you're not cut off from her quest.

Ah, so how do I go back to meet her then?

For Ludwig's, the Strength points you invest in it don't get wasted since the strength will scale the same as Skill for that weapon. The usefulness of Saw Spear over Threaded Cane is that it has more DPS overall

Spoiler

and has bonus damage against beasts.

Skill is only really favored because of the visceral attacks (which for strength matters less since you have a lot of two handed weapons). The game hugely favors raising both stats anyway since the most efficient weapons fall under semi-quality category.

Well the TC whip form is serrated so it has extra damage against beasts as well. And should I be raising strength as well? I figured it'd be best to go all out in skill, currently my strength is only 13 and my skill is like 31, I just want to use skill weapons so I didn't think I was doing anything wrong.

 

[KittenMaster]

Ah, so how do I go back to meet her then?

Well the TC whip form is serrated so it has extra damage against beasts as well. And should I be raising strength as well? I figured it'd be best to go all out in skill, currently my strength is only 13 and my skill is like 31, I just want to use skill weapons so I didn't think I was doing anything wrong.

No, the only reason to raise strength for a skill focused build is to bring it up to 16 so that you can equip Ludwig's (and even that is optional, though you may as well since you're already at 13 strength). You should focus mostly on Skill otherwise.

 

[Marty-esque]

If I make another character and want to eventually use the chikage, would I focused on bloodtinge and skill? Use a skill weapon before I acquire the chikage?

 

[JadedWriter]

Ah, so how do I go back to meet her then?

Well the TC whip form is serrated so it has extra damage against beasts as well. And should I be raising strength as well? I figured it'd be best to go all out in skill, currently my strength is only 13 and my skill is like 31, I just want to use skill weapons so I didn't think I was doing anything wrong.

If you just go back to Oedon Tomb they should be fighting.

 

[Orochinagis]

Hmmm that's kinda disappointing. I thought this place was supposed to be the epicenter of everything? There's a Iosefka copypaste hunter, a brainsucker, some bug things and a really small building...

The old dude from that one cutscene gesturing for you to jump off the bridge, and then jumping off the bridge for the boss was really cool though.

It was one of the key places where they succeded in creating a

Spoiler

great one

but yeah, was really bad designed and the area is in a perpetual night

I'm pretty sure viscerals do scale with STR just not as well as they scale with SKL. Overall I agree the game favors SKL builds for this reason alone but I don't think the gap is huge. My two favorite weapons of the ones I've used are 1) cane, 2) Kirkhammer. The latter has its advantages: first the damage is bonkers if you level up your strength and upgrade the weapon, way higher than the cane/whip can manage; second, in hammer form it staggers enemies way more than the skill weapons do. Again, overall I'd take a skill build with the whip for the visceral advantage and insane reach of the whip, but some enemies and bosses are easier with heavy artillery I think. It's fun to try each as they require pretty different playstyles.

V attacks scales with STR and ATK gems in the weapon too I think but not as much as SKILL, I tried the Kirkhammer but the greatsowrd did a better job for me

I don't think it matters. The tomb lamp will remain off permanently.

You cant teleport to that place but you can teleport from that place.

If I make another character and want to eventually use the chikage, would I focused on bloodtinge and skill? Use a skill weapon before I acquire the chikage?

The Chikage is a skill weapon in normal mode and a bloodweapon with S scaling in transformed mode, you need at least to invest 30-40 in bloodtinge to see some damage in its bloodmode anyway

 

[Ferr986]

If I make another character and want to eventually use the chikage, would I focused on bloodtinge and skill? Use a skill weapon before I acquire the chikage?

If you want to make a Bloodtinge build for Chikage you'll have to avoid raising Skill depending on what level you want to cap your character.
I would choose the Axe as a starter weapon, it's R2 is viable for bosses even if you don't level any offensive stat.

You can enter Cainhurst as soon as you get to the Forbidden Woods, if you can beat Logarius...

You shouldnt't have less than 40 Bloodtinge for it, and I would recommend bring it all the way to 50 depending on your level cap.

It's up to you if you want to use Chikage as a Skill weapon or Bloodtinge weapon. At +10 scaling is B for SKL and S for BT.

 

[Deleted member 325805]

This is my first "souls" game and I'm terrible, is it viable to out level bosses? I'm currently stuck on the first one, I can do his first 2 phases but the 3rd just destroys me. So I'm wondering if I can just grind a bit for levels to make it easier, or do the mobs/bosses scale with you?

 

[Psychoward]

If you just go back to Oedon Tomb they should be fighting.

yeah got it, now i just progress in the main story some more and go back to the cathedral ward eventually?

 

[JadedWriter]

yeah got it, now i just progress in the main story some more and go back to the cathedral ward eventually?

I would just go back now, because a whole bunch of weird shit happens and gets cutoff after a certain boss battle I think.

 

[Psychoward]

I would just go back now, because a whole bunch of weird shit happens and gets cutoff after a certain boss battle I think.

Go back where? I went to the Tomb of Oedeon already and fought that dude

according to the internet i can't get the last and final fight to occur until after I defeat Rom

 

[JadedWriter]

Go back where? I went to the Tomb of Oedeon already and fought that dude

according to the internet i can't get the last and final fight to occur until after I defeat Rom

Oh yeah nevermind, sorry read that one wrong. Yeah just go back to the story then. From what I've read the last guy is a pain in the ass. You can also do some chalice dungeons.

 

[Xeilyn]

This is my first "souls" game and I'm terrible, is it viable to out level bosses? I'm currently stuck on the first one, I can do his first 2 phases but the 3rd just destroys me. So I'm wondering if I can just grind a bit for levels to make it easier, or do the mobs/bosses scale with you?

Yes you can be overleveled for the bosses, no enemies scale with your lvl. In his third phase you can use oil urns+molotovs. I also recommend going on the offensive, V.attacks work really well also. If you need help and want to move on i can help you but practice makes perfect so keep at it

 

[Orochinagis]

This is my first "souls" game and I'm terrible, is it viable to out level bosses? I'm currently stuck on the first one, I can do his first 2 phases but the 3rd just destroys me. So I'm wondering if I can just grind a bit for levels to make it easier, or do the mobs/bosses scale with you?

Yes you can outlevel them and no, the enemies dont scale

 

[Ferr986]

This is my first "souls" game and I'm terrible, is it viable to out level bosses? I'm currently stuck on the first one, I can do his first 2 phases but the 3rd just destroys me. So I'm wondering if I can just grind a bit for levels to make it easier, or do the mobs/bosses scale with you?

Apart of what has been already said, I consider leveling up your weapon of choice first more important than leveling your character.

 

[NEO0MJ]

Apart of what has been already said, I consider leveling up your weapon of choice first more important than leveling your character.

Yeah, you make more use of currency in Souls games by putting it into powering up weapons over level.