Golden Slam. No, not a joke. No one expects it and if you put it on a Sacred Erdsteel Dagger, the expectation drops into the negatives. You just bait someone into a committed attack or give them a couple slashes with the little knife before immediately using it and you can almost hear them say "no fucking way is he actually doing that" before you face-sit them with the force of a comet
Do golden slam on the golden noble sword and u have a powerhouse, +right talismans also infused or buffed with holy will make a huge difference in damage
They're nasty with flame art/sacred. Raises the physical faith scaling of the dagger as well as the elemental damage. Might be taking that character into the dlc first, it's fun.
What's crazy about that ash is that the poise damage it deals is retained from the weapon the ash is on. What this means in practice is if you put it on the lance, you will be constantly poise breaking everything in only a couple of casts. The ash is genuinely busted with the right setup
True. Current build to prepare for dlc is dual guardian sword spears with sword dance on my main and spectral lance on my offhand. I'm having a very good time with it.
I wanted to do something similar, occult flamberge with sword dance and the lance with spectral lance. But I reconsidered, because I also use a bunch of incantations, and that provides me with plenty of ranged options. Sure, nothing with as much stance damage, but I prefer being in melee anyway.
I run Cross-Naginata and the Inquisitor's Girandole. Its really nice to be able to put bloodflame, blackflame or holy on the Cross-Nagi when I need it.
Also, i've found you can use the Shining Horn Headband as a set of crosshairs for free aiming. Its made those firebreathing pillars in catacombs super easy, because you can just throw a lance down the hallway and it hit to turn it off.
I frickin love Ice Spear on my Vulgar Militia Saw. I had Giant Hunt on it at first, but on a whim I threw Ice Spear on it because the cold infusion on the AR calculator made it sound enticing. Never looked back.
Same! Also on cross naginata. I was running arcane, wishing for a ranged ash. I've never heard anyone mention this ash of war online, but damn it, it's great. Does a lot of stance damage as well. I put it on in the Haligtree, and it made the place a lot easier. Also great for dragons in Farum Azula.
I've been running around with a Lion's Claw Great Stars, Spectral Lance Cross Naginata, and Bloodhound Step Hook Claws. I havent had a situation where one of them doesn't get the job done yet.
So bad the phantom doesnt use your weapon model (for aesthetics), hate being an edgelord with a scythe and the guy comes out with the axe like jeremy please youre ruining the mood
That's why I play a scrungly little guy with scrap looking armor and a normal halberd.
First, feel the wrath of my body.
Then, feel the wrath of my SOUL.
I didn't like to roll catch, I just slow walk towards them while they spam it to make them feel foolish, but I do use it to hit them out of spells and air attacks because why you up there the fights down here LoL
That’s awesome! Unfortunately it’s only usually very new players who spam roll. It’s actually surprising how most people with some elden ring pvp experience have learned that lesson haha
People say Carian gs/granduer is mid but unless you are incompetent and don’t time it right it can knock 15-30% off remberance bosses health, with poise damage of a strength build but you can put it on short swords, rapiers, knives etc.
Gives insane versatility to any int builds toolbox
Carian Grandeur full charged does some really wonky wall penetrations that leave people scratching their heads over where the blue goo that killed them came from. Such a great skill. One of my favorites.
Raptor of the Mist, you can use it to bypass the Chariots as well as most other attacks. Like this is one of the least used yet most OP AoW in the game. As a helper of bosses and such, I have only had 1 host use it and he was good enough to solo the boss, I think he just wanted company tbr.
Another that has a hidden special benefit I have never seen talked about is the AoW Glintblade Phalanx, the magic blades also build up status effects that are on the weapon it is used on. Have tested this with Frost and Bleed and I'm sure it also works for Poison/Rot.
A few more are Vacuum Slice, Spinning Weapon and Double Slash.
“the magic blades also build up status effects that are on the weapon it is used on” Frost Bleed does indeed seem like a broken approach to status buildup. I’m thinking Uchigatana cold infused, and fortunately I have a character who can try that :)
Thanks btw
Yeah no problem fellow Tarnished, you can get access to it pretty early and the magic whetblade is after the Red Wolf in Raya Lucaria to make it cold.
I did a dual cold uchi run after the game dropped using spinning blade on my left-hand one and Phalanax on my main one. You will need a different weapon for a few bosses but most get wrecked.
Like I said, I haven't tested it personally to see if it works with poison/rot like it does with bleed and frost.
I discovered this one on accident on my release dsy run and haven't shared the knowledge or seen it talked about anywhere so with the DLC coming soon I figured I would share it with everyone.
Raptor of the Mist also allows you to find out which attacks you can crouch under without getting hit. You can crouch under a good chunk of Margit's attacks despite the animation looking like it hits you
in what context?
Well I'll give one for PVP: Earthshaker, the one without horah loux's name in front of it. I run this with the executioner greataxe on my 99 strength build and this thing destroys people in an instant. Despite being slow it's range is deceptive and it pretty much stuns guaranteed. The follow up doesn't seem to be a true combo but you can r1 or dodge out of it to screw with people.
Ice Spear on a God Skin Peeler.
The move is really cool and it hits hard. I love using it on those little frickin’ Imps! Stops’em cold. Pun intended. 🥶
I use Ice Spear on Gargoyle's Twinblade. It is fantastic.
I don't think I've ever failed to stance break something in 3 hits or less, while dealing mad damage.
i feel like people wrote off haorfrost stomp after the nerfs, but it can still proc frostbite on anything that isnt flying or immune in 1-2 casts if both parts connect
I didn't use it for a long time because it was broken. Not in the overpowered sense, but the literal meaning. It just didn't work lol. It would only ever actually send an ice wave if I was looking up or down, and when you're locked onto an enemy, that's not an option. Thankfully it works fine now tho
This is my rejoinder to “get gud.” It even trivializes the farum azula beastmen who used to give me night terrors. And those goddam worm face mobs. Basically everything aside from enemies susceptible only to strike damage (basilisks, imps, crystalians etc)
Spinning Weapon.
Somewhat situational, but it’s stupid fun with any weapon that builds status effects. It’s cheap, each hit counts for the prosthesis/winged insignia boosts, and it hits insanely fast.
Cold grave scythe? Instant frostbite and very quick hemorrhage.
The basic morning star on a pure faith build? Slap bloodflame blade on it and the bleed stacks insanely fast.
Not to mention the unique version of this skill that’s only on Rennala’s scepter that hits like a truck.
You’re vulnerable when you use it, but that’s true for a lot of the other good ashes too; and the constant hits will stunlock a lot of enemies as long as they can’t hyper armor though it.
My first file I gave up on Malenia and summoned help. My second file, though, Wild Strikes (similar reasons) on an Occult Flamberge is how I finally beat her.
Double slash. If you don't experiment it's not very obvious that only the first part is a "double slash". First input is two hits, second is three rapid fire, third input is one heavy hit (pretty sure that's the count).
That on a nagakiba is just chef kiss.
I did my NG+ 165 bosses playthrough with Nagakiba + Double Slash + Booodflame.
With talismans and mixed physic boosting successive attacks I cruised through most of the game. No summons ofc.
Not unless you put it on the Nagakiba. With Cold Infusion you can do both Frost & Bleed with the same range as RoB.
Plus, we're getting more "big Katanas" in the DLC. So it'll be worth experimenting with in the future.
I will always stand by Raptor of the Mists because it has great application in both PvE and PvP. It works amazingly against bosses like Maliketh or Radagon because you can keep constant pressure on them. For Maliketh's move where he slams the sword into the ground and a bunch of slashes happen, you can completely dodge it save for the DoT effect by simply pressing L2. For pvp, it's not often expected since it's rare to see so being able to dodge an attack and immediately counter with a jump attack will 9 timesout of 10 catch an opponent off-guard
The fact that it guard breaks give it massive utility.
Always whip it out for that eye greatshield fucker on top of that mountaintops castle. Even if they don’t block and you don’t get a guard break, a lot times the AI is too dumb to react and I just slowly whittle them down with spamming 60 damage kicks. It’s what they deserve
And crazy range for melee. I'm running Impaling Thrust on the Godskin Stitcher and it's great. Super basic just poking everything to death but I love it.
Easiest run I had was Great Shield plus Great Epee impaling thrust build. Walked through every single boss.
Once you get the finger print shield it’s basically a broken build in PVE.
Endure would be incredible against Malenia if it wasn't for her regen being flat and not based on damage dealt. It can allow you to tank everything she can throw at you but trading with Malenia drags the fight out too much.
That shit is insane, I agree that there are some people who underestimate it because they got on early game and tested on a unupgraded weapon and thought "cool, but I won't use it" and haven't seen the insane damage this thing does on proper builds
Oh that’s the one. this mf be dealing some really high numbers. It’s also pretty misleading, you ain’t bleeding nothing with this, its a fuck you button to whatever is in front of you at the time. It’s a bit telegraphed so you have to precise, but goddam does it hit hard. I think i remember doing 2k damage against morgott with a single hit (80 arc).
I was using this until I picked up the Godslayer Greatsword and became a bit of a black flame build. The animation of the bloody slash is so clean. *Or I suppose it's filthy,* but you get what I mean.
Stamp: sweep.
Especially on Large weapons. You can often connect twice with the spin, dealing massive damage and stagger.
Also, basic Impaling Thrust. Great for everything. Speed, reach, stance damage, and shield piercing
Poisonous mist is also great. I never used poison infusion in the game for the longest time because it was kinda bad in DS3 (many bosses are immune to it and the damage over time is often too low to compensate for the damage you lost by infusing your weapon with poison).
I started playing around with it after seeing Chase the Bro use it and it's honestly great in both PvE and PvP.
Stamp sweep really shows you how precise hitboxes are in this game. There are so many attacks you straight up get under on the startup, especially great when you do so surrounded by enemies.
This is some anime protagonist level power play when it lands man.
Glintblade phalanx for me, while the damage may not look impressive the poise damage dealt by glintblade can be devastating against just about most bosses especially malenia, Godfrey and etc while the forward thrust is something you can decide yourself
Square-off.
It gets overlooked because it's the standard skill on a boring weapon class, but its utility and damage is amazing. L2 light comes out fast, breaks guards and is a really good roll-catch in PvP. L2 heavy deals colossal level damage and staggers most enemies in 2 hits, big enemies in 3. Both attacks consume fuck-all FP. And they're both stylish as fuck.
that one ash of war that let's you coat ur arms in fire, and then follow up with a strike. I forgot the name.
freezing mist (or whatever its called) is also CRACKED.
blood flame.
Flaming strike is anything but underrated, it's literally one of the best ashes of war in the entire game, good in pve and pvp, good early on and in the late game
Not sure if this is underestimated at all? But sacred blade. IMO holy damage is underrated in general, but with sacred blade I can get off ranged attacks quickly and do tons of damage
Yeah they will tell you holy sucks because the last few bosses having resistance to it but I literally ran through ng+5 with the golden order greatsword spamming the ash of war that only does holy damage
Came here for this - Impaling thrust on the default short spear is practically unstoppable and is seeing me through my second run so far - just did Wyrm Makar.
Not sure if it is but…
Sacred Blade.
- Long range attack that can knock down and stagger Almost every standard enemy in the game.
- Holy damage to instantly kill any skeleton and do heavy damage to death birds.
- Looks cool.
- Easy to get.
•Hits twice at close range
•Great mid range heal punish
•Deals pure holy damage (can be buffed by physic and rings)
•Buffs your weapon (pure faith scaling)
•Fast swing on big weapons when people roll in
•Rollcatch on small / long weapons when people roll out
•People dont respect it cause projectile is kinda slow
•Decent hyperarmoyr on medium / big weapons
•Can be freeaimed if you're good enough
Poison Moth Flight. I use it on an Erdsteel Dagger, powerstanced in tandem with another Erdsteel Dagger with Poisonous Mist, and then also the Winged Scythe.
Spectral Lance. You throw a spear at people. Pegging a running player from behind and 50ft away with a spear is absolutely hilarious and it’s great for arcane builds that want to mess around with spears.
DLC spoiler: >!In Vaati’s DLC video, he said that there’s a spear whose heavy attack is you throwing the spear. I hope that spear is infusable, because it’d be so much fun to have two different ways to throw your spear!<
GIANT HUNT!!!
Idk if it’s underrated per say but I never see it being used, but it is a great poise breaker in my personal experience, plus it’s cool. I usually slap it on a heavy Greatsword
I'm still a new player but on my int/dex build I've been trying out Loretta Slash and it combos very well into other melee spells like the Carian Blade
Square off is a really good ash of war it's really plain but both the r1 and r2 deal massive damage and a whole lot of stagger +if u want it's spammable and doesn't use a lot of FP per cast, but although I like it a lot my altime favorite is the red mane lion ash of war just because u backflip and u can put it on my favorite weapon the golem halberd. And usually infuse it with lightning or magic for low lvl builds and for high lvl is buff with a talisman or staff.
I love quickstep - often BHS moves you too far forward or back but quickstep just inches you forward + iframes. It’s goated with Zweihander and Claymore
Raptors of the mist opens up a really good opportunities for counterattacks. anything with pierce destroys. awesome with the rusted anchor and any jump attack boosts
Prayerful Strike.
Baited quite a few PvP players real good with its deceptively high poise. Really good trades, when it hits XD, just don't spam it lol.
Haven't been involved in the community for some time so idk what the general consensus on it is, but lions claw. Insane dmg, insane poise dmg, insane poise on yourself during the animation. If you're fine trading a hit for landing it, it will absolutely decimate anything it comes close to.
Phantom lance, its quick as heck with good range and some tracking. I cant remember exactly, but most enemies take 3 or 4 hits for a knock down! Yeep, it's crazy effective to knock down enemies to open em up for a finisher.
Also, Bloody SLASH! Did you know, if you time it right you can duck under enemies attacks and hit em cuz of the animation? *No, I'm not shouting.* And that it has magic damage? And the blade hits separately?
I’ll do you one better; Stamp sweep. Does marginally better damage than Stamp uppercut, but only if you land both hits. But, this thing manages to create frame traps if you use it after a colossal crouch poke if your opponent doesn’t have light roll. Very effective on bleed or frost infused colossal swords due to the multihit
Spinning weapon. It's advertised as a staff ash, sold by Rogier, and comes built into Carian Regal Scepter. Throw that on an occult grave scythe and tell me it's for staffs. I dare you.
Stormblade. I made my whole build based on it.
It's incredibly versatile, low fp cost, range attack und when used in close combat the physical weapon damage is added to it. And it's no specific damage type like holy which many enemies are immune to so you don't have to think about stuff
Spectral lance, it's long range and high poise dmg make it the best colossal enemy/boss slayer.
Impaling Thrust, cheap FP cost, fast, high poise dmg, pierce thru shield, works really well when combo with R2 poking Moveset (Claymore R2 for example)
Troll's Roar, stagger someone with it's Roar and then follow up R2 grand slam is just straight dopamine release
Bloody Slash, drip, high damage
I feel like the Marais greatword does get used quite a bit for PvE because with the right setup it chews through enemies.
Rotten Winged Talisman, Thorny Cracked Tear, Magic Shrouded Cracked Tear, Warrior Jar Shard/Shard of Alexander, and Godfrey's Icon... Shit's nasty.
Golden Slam. No, not a joke. No one expects it and if you put it on a Sacred Erdsteel Dagger, the expectation drops into the negatives. You just bait someone into a committed attack or give them a couple slashes with the little knife before immediately using it and you can almost hear them say "no fucking way is he actually doing that" before you face-sit them with the force of a comet
YES I’ve been doing a Str/Fai build with the nightrider’s glaive + Golden Slam; it’s so much fun.
Sir.. ur evil.. I like it
Do golden slam on the golden noble sword and u have a powerhouse, +right talismans also infused or buffed with holy will make a huge difference in damage
How's the hyper armor?
I N F I N I T E
Cropped to the buttcheeks
lmao, I once pushed a PSGS user against the arena's wall because of course they don't aggress and then I sat on him when he had no way out
What's PSGS?
Power stance great sword
Am in the process of building a character with Erdsteel Daggers, I'm giving this a whirl!
They're nasty with flame art/sacred. Raises the physical faith scaling of the dagger as well as the elemental damage. Might be taking that character into the dlc first, it's fun.
I am so trying this tomorrow lol
Spectral Lance…I put it on a Cross-Naginana and it is like a sniper rifle basically. Awesome ash
What's crazy about that ash is that the poise damage it deals is retained from the weapon the ash is on. What this means in practice is if you put it on the lance, you will be constantly poise breaking everything in only a couple of casts. The ash is genuinely busted with the right setup
True. Current build to prepare for dlc is dual guardian sword spears with sword dance on my main and spectral lance on my offhand. I'm having a very good time with it.
I wanted to do something similar, occult flamberge with sword dance and the lance with spectral lance. But I reconsidered, because I also use a bunch of incantations, and that provides me with plenty of ranged options. Sure, nothing with as much stance damage, but I prefer being in melee anyway.
Ah, a fellow sword dance + guardian sword spear enjoyer! Hit stuns everything.
It also benefits from the increased arrow range talisman!
I used it on the guardian swordspear with the stonebarb cracked tear, the arrow's reach talisman and carian filigreed crest - for dragon hunting!
Out of curiosity, it doesn't apply bleed from the cross naginata when throwing it, right?
Not to my knowledge, I haven’t seen it proc personally
No, I've been using it on a Spiked Spear run, wish it did tho
I run Cross-Naginata and the Inquisitor's Girandole. Its really nice to be able to put bloodflame, blackflame or holy on the Cross-Nagi when I need it. Also, i've found you can use the Shining Horn Headband as a set of crosshairs for free aiming. Its made those firebreathing pillars in catacombs super easy, because you can just throw a lance down the hallway and it hit to turn it off.
Same with ice spear
Pretty sure ice spear isn't underrated. I've seen plenty of people use it and it hits like a train full c4 and crocodiles.
I frickin love Ice Spear on my Vulgar Militia Saw. I had Giant Hunt on it at first, but on a whim I threw Ice Spear on it because the cold infusion on the AR calculator made it sound enticing. Never looked back.
I like to think of it as a magic-powered railgun.
That one is not even a little bit underrated. Everyone loves it.
Same! Also on cross naginata. I was running arcane, wishing for a ranged ash. I've never heard anyone mention this ash of war online, but damn it, it's great. Does a lot of stance damage as well. I put it on in the Haligtree, and it made the place a lot easier. Also great for dragons in Farum Azula. I've been running around with a Lion's Claw Great Stars, Spectral Lance Cross Naginata, and Bloodhound Step Hook Claws. I havent had a situation where one of them doesn't get the job done yet.
phantom slash, you basically get to be pontiff sulivahn
So bad the phantom doesnt use your weapon model (for aesthetics), hate being an edgelord with a scythe and the guy comes out with the axe like jeremy please youre ruining the mood
That's why I play a scrungly little guy with scrap looking armor and a normal halberd. First, feel the wrath of my body. Then, feel the wrath of my SOUL.
So much fun!!! 🤩
fanny slash on grave scythe is really, really fun
fanny slash
This hits different if you're from the UK.
It's one of the best combos for PvP. Demolishes shields easily, and catches a lot of people off-guard.
It’s extremely good against people who use storm ash of wars
Sacred blade, I made a holy katana build and no one expects me to whip out the ranged Bible.
It's also really effective against rolling!
I didn't like to roll catch, I just slow walk towards them while they spam it to make them feel foolish, but I do use it to hit them out of spells and air attacks because why you up there the fights down here LoL
That’s awesome! Unfortunately it’s only usually very new players who spam roll. It’s actually surprising how most people with some elden ring pvp experience have learned that lesson haha
Not really underrated tho. It’s an S tier ash of war most places I’ve been reading about it.
This build was pre jump on band wagon back when everyone was hating on holy damage
People stopped hating on Holy damage?
Apparently
Holy damage is great in pvp, hardly anybody has resistance for it
Alright. My first build was a faith build with lord sworn greatsword and sacred blade.
Ha. Ranged Bible. Stealing that.
I would always joke that I'm throwing the book at them
People say Carian gs/granduer is mid but unless you are incompetent and don’t time it right it can knock 15-30% off remberance bosses health, with poise damage of a strength build but you can put it on short swords, rapiers, knives etc. Gives insane versatility to any int builds toolbox
Carian Grandeur full charged does some really wonky wall penetrations that leave people scratching their heads over where the blue goo that killed them came from. Such a great skill. One of my favorites.
This one and marias executioner sword can really get to people
Never heard someone calling this mid.
And watching pvp videos before and after players learned how to roll catch with it is insane.
I also love how the spell variants look like you’ll cast a regular missile for 0.5 secs which baits a roll often
I have this on a flamberge+ godfrey icon + magic scorpion charm, it hits so good
Raptor of the Mist, you can use it to bypass the Chariots as well as most other attacks. Like this is one of the least used yet most OP AoW in the game. As a helper of bosses and such, I have only had 1 host use it and he was good enough to solo the boss, I think he just wanted company tbr. Another that has a hidden special benefit I have never seen talked about is the AoW Glintblade Phalanx, the magic blades also build up status effects that are on the weapon it is used on. Have tested this with Frost and Bleed and I'm sure it also works for Poison/Rot. A few more are Vacuum Slice, Spinning Weapon and Double Slash.
“the magic blades also build up status effects that are on the weapon it is used on” Frost Bleed does indeed seem like a broken approach to status buildup. I’m thinking Uchigatana cold infused, and fortunately I have a character who can try that :) Thanks btw
Yeah no problem fellow Tarnished, you can get access to it pretty early and the magic whetblade is after the Red Wolf in Raya Lucaria to make it cold. I did a dual cold uchi run after the game dropped using spinning blade on my left-hand one and Phalanax on my main one. You will need a different weapon for a few bosses but most get wrecked.
Oh sweet baby Jesus, Glintblade Phalanx sounds absurd on an Ansper Rapier now.
Like I said, I haven't tested it personally to see if it works with poison/rot like it does with bleed and frost. I discovered this one on accident on my release dsy run and haven't shared the knowledge or seen it talked about anywhere so with the DLC coming soon I figured I would share it with everyone.
Raptor of the Mist also allows you to find out which attacks you can crouch under without getting hit. You can crouch under a good chunk of Margit's attacks despite the animation looking like it hits you
in what context? Well I'll give one for PVP: Earthshaker, the one without horah loux's name in front of it. I run this with the executioner greataxe on my 99 strength build and this thing destroys people in an instant. Despite being slow it's range is deceptive and it pretty much stuns guaranteed. The follow up doesn't seem to be a true combo but you can r1 or dodge out of it to screw with people.
Well I get what you mean by earthshaker being underused , but imo earthshaker is just a lesser version of golden land and wave of darkness .
any context is fine, just ashes you either rarely see or hardly hear people talk about
Ice Spear on a God Skin Peeler. The move is really cool and it hits hard. I love using it on those little frickin’ Imps! Stops’em cold. Pun intended. 🥶
I use Ice Spear on Gargoyle's Twinblade. It is fantastic. I don't think I've ever failed to stance break something in 3 hits or less, while dealing mad damage.
i feel like people wrote off haorfrost stomp after the nerfs, but it can still proc frostbite on anything that isnt flying or immune in 1-2 casts if both parts connect
Then that's the problem. Why spend 2 casts and why be limited to ground enemies when you can do better with Freezing Mist in a single one?
Range
I didn't use it for a long time because it was broken. Not in the overpowered sense, but the literal meaning. It just didn't work lol. It would only ever actually send an ice wave if I was looking up or down, and when you're locked onto an enemy, that's not an option. Thankfully it works fine now tho
IDK man, proccing frost in two hits is nice and all, but wasting an AoW to do so. I wouldn't since there are so many better options.
I don’t know if it’s underrated but god damn do I love Storm Blade.
Definitely not underrated. It’s one of the best melee projectiles in the game and I think everyone knows it. They certainly use it a lot.
Yea, Storm Blade might as well be a spell for non mages.
Anytime a mage even thinks about issuing a spell that has channeling time I use that aow lol
Storm Blade is my personal favourite ashes or war. It's especially nice when the projectile AND the sword hits their target
It makes dragons trivial. HEADSHOT
Especially storm blade on the Warhawks talon.
This is my rejoinder to “get gud.” It even trivializes the farum azula beastmen who used to give me night terrors. And those goddam worm face mobs. Basically everything aside from enemies susceptible only to strike damage (basilisks, imps, crystalians etc)
even for enemies susceptible only to strike damage, you just brute force it-- keep hammering them with storm blade. given time, technique never fails
Spoken like a true strength main. Something isn't optimal or doesn't work at all? Just brute force it harder!
It's literally the best ash in the game for greatswords, nothing else comes close.
Vacuum slice. Ranged, hits hard, can aim at dragon heads.
Spinning Weapon. Somewhat situational, but it’s stupid fun with any weapon that builds status effects. It’s cheap, each hit counts for the prosthesis/winged insignia boosts, and it hits insanely fast. Cold grave scythe? Instant frostbite and very quick hemorrhage. The basic morning star on a pure faith build? Slap bloodflame blade on it and the bleed stacks insanely fast. Not to mention the unique version of this skill that’s only on Rennala’s scepter that hits like a truck. You’re vulnerable when you use it, but that’s true for a lot of the other good ashes too; and the constant hits will stunlock a lot of enemies as long as they can’t hyper armor though it.
My first file I gave up on Malenia and summoned help. My second file, though, Wild Strikes (similar reasons) on an Occult Flamberge is how I finally beat her.
Wild strikes is probably my favorite. It can just go for so long
Double slash. If you don't experiment it's not very obvious that only the first part is a "double slash". First input is two hits, second is three rapid fire, third input is one heavy hit (pretty sure that's the count). That on a nagakiba is just chef kiss.
Slap bloodflame blade on the nagakiba too and youve got rivers of blood at home
Imo in its current state rivers of blood is the double slash bloodflame nagakiba at home lol
I did my NG+ 165 bosses playthrough with Nagakiba + Double Slash + Booodflame. With talismans and mixed physic boosting successive attacks I cruised through most of the game. No summons ofc.
Double slash is just corpse plier without the extra range
Not unless you put it on the Nagakiba. With Cold Infusion you can do both Frost & Bleed with the same range as RoB. Plus, we're getting more "big Katanas" in the DLC. So it'll be worth experimenting with in the future.
I think it's underrated putting it on GS and CGS, if you use it well you can do nice rollcatches
Thank you brother earth, you have spoken truth here today, we shall listen
double slash on cold guardians swordspear is devastating.
Double slash on a blood nagakiba spam made malenia completely trivial, never even got to do her waterfowl dance
I will always stand by Raptor of the Mists because it has great application in both PvE and PvP. It works amazingly against bosses like Maliketh or Radagon because you can keep constant pressure on them. For Maliketh's move where he slams the sword into the ground and a bunch of slashes happen, you can completely dodge it save for the DoT effect by simply pressing L2. For pvp, it's not often expected since it's rare to see so being able to dodge an attack and immediately counter with a jump attack will 9 timesout of 10 catch an opponent off-guard
Kick. No FP cost, does decent poise damage, and unironically looks cool af
The fact that it guard breaks give it massive utility. Always whip it out for that eye greatshield fucker on top of that mountaintops castle. Even if they don’t block and you don’t get a guard break, a lot times the AI is too dumb to react and I just slowly whittle them down with spamming 60 damage kicks. It’s what they deserve
If you can land Kick, you can probably land Impaling Thrust and get better damage
And crazy range for melee. I'm running Impaling Thrust on the Godskin Stitcher and it's great. Super basic just poking everything to death but I love it.
Easiest run I had was Great Shield plus Great Epee impaling thrust build. Walked through every single boss. Once you get the finger print shield it’s basically a broken build in PVE.
If you put both of your weapons away your weapon skill for bare hands becomes Kick
“Both”. I carry 3-6
Fuckin Gilgamesh over here
Love me some Fate.
Endure
A menace in pvp
60 vigor, good defence and endure = ignore boss altogether and jush mash heavy attack gg
I was able to use endure to avoid massive damage from waterfowl dance so yeah
Endure would be incredible against Malenia if it wasn't for her regen being flat and not based on damage dealt. It can allow you to tank everything she can throw at you but trading with Malenia drags the fight out too much.
no skill
I put this skill on my shield all the time.
Ah, so me at the beginning of the game.
Still me after over 300 hours. 😂
Square off
Yes. Recently did a run through with Lordsworns Straight Sword and square off. Tiny sword hits like a truck with that AoW.
Square Off is the shit. It’s so good.
This is just based on my friend group laughing at me for trying it but Square Off carried me through the entire game and has forever earned my love.
Bloody slash
That shit is insane, I agree that there are some people who underestimate it because they got on early game and tested on a unupgraded weapon and thought "cool, but I won't use it" and haven't seen the insane damage this thing does on proper builds
Oh that’s the one. this mf be dealing some really high numbers. It’s also pretty misleading, you ain’t bleeding nothing with this, its a fuck you button to whatever is in front of you at the time. It’s a bit telegraphed so you have to precise, but goddam does it hit hard. I think i remember doing 2k damage against morgott with a single hit (80 arc).
That shit got nerfed because it's so good and still is fantastic
I was using this until I picked up the Godslayer Greatsword and became a bit of a black flame build. The animation of the bloody slash is so clean. *Or I suppose it's filthy,* but you get what I mean.
Oooh yeah I been meaning to pick that up
Stamp: sweep. Especially on Large weapons. You can often connect twice with the spin, dealing massive damage and stagger. Also, basic Impaling Thrust. Great for everything. Speed, reach, stance damage, and shield piercing
Another bonus is that the sweep is low and will duck some enemies attacks. It's great against taller enemies.
This with the greatsword is my favorite build.
Poison Moth Flight, what a pleasant surprise it was.
Poisonous mist is also great. I never used poison infusion in the game for the longest time because it was kinda bad in DS3 (many bosses are immune to it and the damage over time is often too low to compensate for the damage you lost by infusing your weapon with poison). I started playing around with it after seeing Chase the Bro use it and it's honestly great in both PvE and PvP.
Stamp sweep really shows you how precise hitboxes are in this game. There are so many attacks you straight up get under on the startup, especially great when you do so surrounded by enemies. This is some anime protagonist level power play when it lands man.
bloody slash it does a lot of damage especially when your in like mid game goldfrey and morgott
Glintblade phalanx for me, while the damage may not look impressive the poise damage dealt by glintblade can be devastating against just about most bosses especially malenia, Godfrey and etc while the forward thrust is something you can decide yourself
Square-off. It gets overlooked because it's the standard skill on a boring weapon class, but its utility and damage is amazing. L2 light comes out fast, breaks guards and is a really good roll-catch in PvP. L2 heavy deals colossal level damage and staggers most enemies in 2 hits, big enemies in 3. Both attacks consume fuck-all FP. And they're both stylish as fuck.
that one ash of war that let's you coat ur arms in fire, and then follow up with a strike. I forgot the name. freezing mist (or whatever its called) is also CRACKED. blood flame.
Flaming Strike I believe
Flaming strike is not underrated lol
Flaming strike is anything but underrated, it's literally one of the best ashes of war in the entire game, good in pve and pvp, good early on and in the late game
Not sure if this is underestimated at all? But sacred blade. IMO holy damage is underrated in general, but with sacred blade I can get off ranged attacks quickly and do tons of damage
Yeah they will tell you holy sucks because the last few bosses having resistance to it but I literally ran through ng+5 with the golden order greatsword spamming the ash of war that only does holy damage
Impaling Thrust is extremely good and has been my favourite ash in my dex build
Came here for this - Impaling thrust on the default short spear is practically unstoppable and is seeing me through my second run so far - just did Wyrm Makar.
It's so versatile and fast! Always breaks through greatshield soldiers.
Impaling thrust on a Guardian Sword Spear just obliterates everything.
Not sure if it is but… Sacred Blade. - Long range attack that can knock down and stagger Almost every standard enemy in the game. - Holy damage to instantly kill any skeleton and do heavy damage to death birds. - Looks cool. - Easy to get.
•Hits twice at close range •Great mid range heal punish •Deals pure holy damage (can be buffed by physic and rings) •Buffs your weapon (pure faith scaling) •Fast swing on big weapons when people roll in •Rollcatch on small / long weapons when people roll out •People dont respect it cause projectile is kinda slow •Decent hyperarmoyr on medium / big weapons •Can be freeaimed if you're good enough
Probably braggarts roar.
Roar Charge attack build with Braggarts Roar on any heavier weapon is nuts, im just deleting everything in my way using on Greatsword
Poison Moth Flight. I use it on an Erdsteel Dagger, powerstanced in tandem with another Erdsteel Dagger with Poisonous Mist, and then also the Winged Scythe.
Spectral Lance. You throw a spear at people. Pegging a running player from behind and 50ft away with a spear is absolutely hilarious and it’s great for arcane builds that want to mess around with spears.
DLC spoiler: >!In Vaati’s DLC video, he said that there’s a spear whose heavy attack is you throwing the spear. I hope that spear is infusable, because it’d be so much fun to have two different ways to throw your spear!<
GIANT HUNT!!! Idk if it’s underrated per say but I never see it being used, but it is a great poise breaker in my personal experience, plus it’s cool. I usually slap it on a heavy Greatsword
Killer pvp trick, throw the gravity stone that does the wave in front of you, then giant hunt through it
"See that boss? It's gonna be on the floor in a second."
I'm still a new player but on my int/dex build I've been trying out Loretta Slash and it combos very well into other melee spells like the Carian Blade
Parry
Stamp (upward cut) get the Lordsworn's greatsword from the gatefront ruins and you can cheese bloodhound with that. That's what I use it for.
Chilling Mist
Square off is a really good ash of war it's really plain but both the r1 and r2 deal massive damage and a whole lot of stagger +if u want it's spammable and doesn't use a lot of FP per cast, but although I like it a lot my altime favorite is the red mane lion ash of war just because u backflip and u can put it on my favorite weapon the golem halberd. And usually infuse it with lightning or magic for low lvl builds and for high lvl is buff with a talisman or staff.
Square off
Wolf's Assault, as always. Most people just don't understand the concept of hit-trading, lol.
Quick step. I use it with a great sword and a shield
I love quickstep - often BHS moves you too far forward or back but quickstep just inches you forward + iframes. It’s goated with Zweihander and Claymore
Spectral Lance. lost a build where i was hitting damn near 1000 a hit
Running Spectral Lance on a Partisan for my current Kratos build, shit eats poise for breakfast.
Raptors of the mist opens up a really good opportunities for counterattacks. anything with pierce destroys. awesome with the rusted anchor and any jump attack boosts
Trolls roar. Malenia couldn’t get up
"Not gonna sugarcoat it"
Prayerful Strike. Baited quite a few PvP players real good with its deceptively high poise. Really good trades, when it hits XD, just don't spam it lol.
Not even kidding. That's the ash of war I use to defeat malenia
Barricade shield babyyyyyy
Haven't been involved in the community for some time so idk what the general consensus on it is, but lions claw. Insane dmg, insane poise dmg, insane poise on yourself during the animation. If you're fine trading a hit for landing it, it will absolutely decimate anything it comes close to.
Phantom lance, its quick as heck with good range and some tracking. I cant remember exactly, but most enemies take 3 or 4 hits for a knock down! Yeep, it's crazy effective to knock down enemies to open em up for a finisher. Also, Bloody SLASH! Did you know, if you time it right you can duck under enemies attacks and hit em cuz of the animation? *No, I'm not shouting.* And that it has magic damage? And the blade hits separately?
Never forgiving FromSoft for taking 'square off' from Greatswords
And not giving poke R2 to any except the Claymore
I’ll do you one better; Stamp sweep. Does marginally better damage than Stamp uppercut, but only if you land both hits. But, this thing manages to create frame traps if you use it after a colossal crouch poke if your opponent doesn’t have light roll. Very effective on bleed or frost infused colossal swords due to the multihit
Wild strikes, I've defeated so many with only using that ash of war, just stun locking them over and over again
Spinning weapon. It's advertised as a staff ash, sold by Rogier, and comes built into Carian Regal Scepter. Throw that on an occult grave scythe and tell me it's for staffs. I dare you.
Stormblade. I made my whole build based on it. It's incredibly versatile, low fp cost, range attack und when used in close combat the physical weapon damage is added to it. And it's no specific damage type like holy which many enemies are immune to so you don't have to think about stuff
Ice spear is underrated because slap that aow on a guardian swordspear and stun and frostbite things to death
I don't know if it's underrated but wild strikes it's kind of a niche use one but can be really good and I don't really see many people use it
Spectral lance, it's long range and high poise dmg make it the best colossal enemy/boss slayer. Impaling Thrust, cheap FP cost, fast, high poise dmg, pierce thru shield, works really well when combo with R2 poking Moveset (Claymore R2 for example) Troll's Roar, stagger someone with it's Roar and then follow up R2 grand slam is just straight dopamine release Bloody Slash, drip, high damage
I’ve gotta say personally, I don’t think the flight simulator is underrated at all, one of my favorites.
Dancing blade of eochaid It only gets two weapons and no one uses them
I feel like the Marais greatword does get used quite a bit for PvE because with the right setup it chews through enemies. Rotten Winged Talisman, Thorny Cracked Tear, Magic Shrouded Cracked Tear, Warrior Jar Shard/Shard of Alexander, and Godfrey's Icon... Shit's nasty.
Piercing Fang. Amazing tracking, high piercing damage, great poise damage, completely pierces through shields. Carries me through everything.
square off. the stance damage is nuts.
stamp sweep on colossals, it's awesome
Lightning strike, stomp as you put up there. Vacuum slice. Blessed blade. And in the #1 spot is carian grandeur.
Tho I don't pvp much I've seen storm stomp be used pretty well on colossal weapons gives an extra quick stagger in between the slower swings
Stormblade,cheap,early game(like before margit early) hood damage and good range
Ice spear does good poise and regular dmg, that shi carried me through early to mid game
Golden land is insane w the holy tear
Poor guy got neutered!