![[Discussion] Which Soulslike will you be playing this weekend and Str vs Dex - which do you like more?](https://lemmy.zip/pictrs/image/732b1d08-a822-4d16-9307-f8786bcbbc8f.webp){kind=link}
Not sure I’ll get around to playing too much this weekend since I’ll be at school tomorrow for an open day and have stuff to do for next week. Should I find the time, I’ll probably continue my DLC playthrough of Lies of P. Having lots of fun with the new Advance weapons.
I’d probably have to go for dex overall. I like these small and nimble weapons that allow for lots of mobility and flashy moves/combos. However, I’ve come around to a good bonking every now and then. My DS3 playthrough has largely consisted of using my Ultra Greatsword and a two-handed club. Nevertheless, weapons like the Blades of Mercy from Bloodborne are still king to me.
What about you?
One of these days I’ll get around to finishing Silksong. But my friend picked it up during my break and is now playing my copy so I’ll probably wait until they’re done to dive back in.
STR is just objectively the best Soulslike build, stagger is (by a long shot) the biggest factor in Fromsoft combat. In fact I forgot just how strong it was until I went back through Elden Ring trying to do an INT/DEX build.
You’d think that playing the build with built in ranged magic would be easier, but the lack of ability to stagger enemies out of their animations required a complete rewrite of the way I approached combat. With the STR build you can just happily unga-bunga your way through the whole game, not so with DEX.
What weapon and spells did you use in your ER INT/DEX build? Something like Dark Moon Greatsword or Wing of Astel get immense staggers.
But yeah, switching to spell blade play style takes a moment. Carian Slicer is a good mixup in melee. You can use it after an attack (or another action) immediately without start up. Night Comet is also good in mid range since enemies don’t react to you casting it.
DMG is probably best in slot for an INT build but I mostly didn’t use it as it felt against the spirit of the run. So I ran most of the game with the Crystal Straight Sword and/or St Trina’s Sword. STS is extremely underrated, for the record.
Once I hit the DLC area I locked in on Milady and finished the rest of the game with that.
I never did a full playthrough with a straight sword in ER. I only ever thought of St. Trine Sword as infinite sleep and nothing more.
For stagger on a straight sword on a dex/int build, probably Square Off with Magic/Cold Infusion.
Milady with a cold infusion and Wing Stance was my set-up for my first DLC playthrough, so much fun.
When I do a guard counter build, I probably have to try a Milady/Light Greatsword with that again.
In fact so far as I know, St Trina’s Sword and Torch are the only sources of limitless sleep in the game, all other sources require nonrenewable resources. And a lot more things are susceptible to sleep than you’d expect.
It also just does a boatload of damage with high INT scaling, I’m pretty sure it had the highest raw AR out of any straight sword I owned in that run. Even without the sleep effect it would be pushing top tier vs other straight swords, and with the unique sleep effect it just blows them out of the water.
Also also, it just looks cool as hell, one of my favorite straight sword designs in the entire game.
If I were to do the build again, though, and focus straight swords rather than focus DEX/INT and just happen to land on a straight sword, I’d probably build it to be either a guard counter or dual wielding build. A 1h SS doesn’t do a whole lot for you in combat. It’s not heavy enough to stagger people reliably and it’s not high damage enough to just delete them before you have to worry about incoming damage. Guard counter solves the former and dual/powerstance solves the latter.
There is one other infinte sleep source in the base game Dolores the Sleeping Arrow Puppet summon (you get her during/after Seluvis questline).
The Purple Lilies in the DLC are infinite they respawn in the south west tip of the map (the DLC also has two new sleep weapons (Thiollier’s fist wepon) and Velvet St Trina’s Sword).
Magic infused Longsword or Broadsword should get more damage at high INT levels - they of course lack the sleep. Interestingly Velvelt St Trina’s Sword has slightly higher damage and an crit modifier of 110. You could powerstance the two but I don’t know how sleep and eternal sleep build up interact together.
Oh, thought of one more stagger INT AOW Carian Sovereignty: it does more stagger than even a colossal can dream of and you can infuse it on any sword.
Ooh, yeah, forgot about those in the DLC, my statement applies to base game. Dolores I don’t think matters enough to really care about, but Thollier’s spike is actually very nasty if you know what you’re doing with it, it does incredibly sick stance damage as well as mega-sleep. I did pick up the Velvet STS but with my regular STS already at +10 I don’t think I bothered investing in it.
Now THIS I did not know, that’s great info. Thanks!
Carian Grandeur/Sovereignty was very excellent and carried me through more than a couple fights - mostly against giants - but a lot of times, finding the time and space to wind up the entire home run hit just isn’t going to happen, in my experience. Especially if you, like me, did not build a muscle mage and can’t trade a hit with anyone without turning into paste. I got more general purpose use out of Hoarfrost Stomp and, weirdly, Spinning Weapon. I did not respect Spinning Weapon even the slightest bit for a very long time but one day I figured out exactly how good it is at status and stagger proc and then it became one of my top 5 most used ashes. Slap it on any cold or bleed weapon and get free procs for days.