This is such a high quality video. The math, the mic quality, the footage in the background. Also a really detailed analysis. This should have a lot more views
I'll second this wholeheartedly. This video in conjunction with the stats one cover the foundational mechanics of this game perfectly, and also articulated in an easily understandable and digestible manner. Incredible work.
One point on mic: In Audacity you can apply filters to smooth down the sharp edges on your "SS" sounds, for example: SSSomber SSSmithing SStone. If that is a concern for you of course.
It's worth mentioning that cold infused weapons have different scaling than magic infused, even if both deal magic damage. Magic infusions seem to completely mangle pre-existing attribute scaling, and give a big chunk of intelligence scaling instead. The physical and magic base damage will also be the same (unless the weapon already had split damage before.) On the other hand Cold infusions will retain previous scaling to a degree and just add a sizeable chunk of int scaling. The physical base damage will also be a decent bit higher than the magical base damage. However, both base damages will likely be lower than that of a straight magic infusion, as a detriment due to the added status damage. The rule of thumb for weapons that at base scale with STR and DEX is to allocate anywhere 50% to 70% of the levels you want to spend on damage in STR/DEX and the rest in INT. This is actually very practical because int scaling ashes of war (like Carian Grandeur for example) pretty much hard cap at 50 int. Any further investment might not even give you a single point of additional damage in some cases. Example, all weapons at +25: Broadsword has 286 base damage (82/33 scaling), magic is 224/224 (10/5/86), cold is 201/162 (93/36/60) If you mainly want to level STR and INT for this build, a 60/40 split would work really well. I did some testing 60 STR 10 DEX and 40 INT yields 577 combined AR. It actually plateaus at that stat investment. Moving up to 10 points from INT to STR will increase the AR only to 578. Vice Versa will only lower it down to 573 AR. So, if you want to get a lot out of magic/cold scaling ashes of war, you might as well go 50/50. Lordsworn's Straight Sword has 281 base damage(54/54), magic is 220/220 (6/6/79), cold is 198/158 (60/60/64) So, LSS is like a 3 way Quality build. It could be a really strong option in higher new games if you have the levels to spend on STR, DEX, and INT, though I haven't tested it.
Amazing breakdown sir. After 2 years off and on with the game this is the first video that gave me an “aha!” moment of understanding. Please keep these up for any game you’re passionate about. You have a gift of simplifying extremely complex systems and the overlayed lists and equations are sooo helpful! (I do be screenshotting)
From someone who got the platinum for Elden ring but never really got into weapon affinities and scaling this video is perfect. Thanks for this perfect analysis bro 🙏🙏
Masterpiece of a video, along with your other stat scaling video. Thank you for being so concise and clear, no small feat considering the options available in this game.
Hey I just got my bachelors in mechanical engineering at UofT and I gotta say you are sooooo well spoken and great at conveying points. You are better than 90% of my professors! You earned a sub from both of my channels and I'll tell all my friends about ur vids. As a math nerd I really appreciated the backend calculation rundown. Thanks again!
This is absolutely incredible! I’ve been looking for a breakdown like this for so long and I’ve learned so much from this video. This is my first souls game and I’ve been absolutely grinding my way through in the most basic way possible. This now has me so pumped to hop back in the game and try a ton of new builds! This deserves so many more views and I can’t wait to watch more of your videos. Fantastic work!!
I really don't get why doesn't ER just give me the scaling value directly, instead of the letter grade it's in. The UI has more than enough room to show the information.
this is super helpful! elden ring is my first fromsoft game and its really overwhelming but the video was super informative and answered alot of the questions ive been having. thank you so much 🙏🏾
Absolutely insane how good this video is. So well laid out, explained in an order that covered each topic and subtopic perfectly. I had trouble grasping certain concepts and why one choice of skill did nothing with another. Keep it up my bro. Awesome content.
I've played through all the Soulsborne games and have never really properly understood this stuff, so Elden Ring was additionally confusing for me with the addition of the Ashes of War system. This video did a great job of clearing up a lot of the confusion I had. Thanks and keep up the good work!
Insane quality Video here 👏🏼 thank you very much other then the graphs and stuff cause i struggle with that type of stuff it was otherwise very informative so good job 💯
If you're going to do a hybrid magic build and planning to use one of the spells that create a magic enchantment over the right hand weapon - like Order's Blande and Scholar's Armament - know that your damage only comes from the scalling of your main stat: intelligence for sorceries and faith for incantantions.
I learned a lot, thank you. Additionally, thank you for no spoiler clips. And also your cinematic shots are not lost on us, they look great. I especially liked the idea of the shot at 13:16 Looks good! Said good! Thanks!
fantastic, everything I was looking for in one video and perfectly explained. As someone who prefers to study the game mechanics beforehand I felt I was blind and overwhelmed in my first playthrough, now I have a lot more info to play around with. Thank you.
I just wanted to take the time to say I appreciate the time it must have taken to prep & make this video. And you did so very well. You sir, are a Legend.
Really appreciate the high quality, clear, and understandable video I’ve seen for Elden ring so far. I just started my first play through and am new to soulslikes and this was super easy for me to understand. ⚔️🏹🗡️🛡️
Been playing since Dark souls 2, I am finally watching a video to understand how to properly tink around with making my own sort of builds LOL. Appreciate you
Wow. Thank you, bro. I just started Elden Ring, and I've never played any From Soft game, nor have I ever played anything similar. Needless to say, I'm completely lost. This helps so much.
I just started playing Elden ring a month ago, my first fromsoftware game too, and this was incredibly helpful. Plus I work in analytics so this scratched a nerdy itch for me, I enjoyed the math more than I probably should have tbh
You probably won’t see this but thank you. I have never played any other Souls game so everything is so confusing. The game is so complex and you’ve helped a ton, thank you.
Hope you get some more subs dude, these vids are excellent. Detailed and edited well. Been going hard on E-Ring recently w/ the DLC coming out soon (hopefully).
Thank you so much for these videos that you have created. I’m taking these few days before the DLC releases to set my character up, and with this video and your video on the soft caps, I’m learning a lot of things that I never knew about the game, even being level 165. Even you explaining something as simple as damage scaling was super helpful, I never knew what the number on the right meant 😆 I now know that my character is a “strength-dex” character and super overleveled in endurance, I suppose. I just wanted to be strong and swift 😂 I want to learn some spells and incantations which is what inspired me to check out your video so I know how to properly respec my stat points.
holy shit dude, ive watched years of elden ring youtube, your vids are hands down top of the S tier for ER content. Great production, concise yet thorough, you have a talent for the presenting and VO work and your manner is super welcoming.
You're hardcore. These videos are great and excellent for reference. I hope you're able to complete your walkthrough series because no doubt they'll be the best of their kind for this game.
AN important thing to remember with strength scaling is whether or not you are two handing the weapon. For example, I prefer two handing the uchigatana, it fits the aesthetic. Even though it has better dex scaling, you get more damage when you use a heavy infusion and invest in strength, because every point in strength is worth 1.5 when two handing.
You would want to level both for quality. Another thing to keep in mind with stormblade though is that it can hit twice at close range because the wind and your weapon hit at the same time, so having a weapon with high base attack power really makes it shine.
Yeah, it just went down the other day. I’m hoping it’s just temporary while they update it to include dlc weapons, but if not there are lots of other ones if you google elden ring weapon ar calculators. That was just the one I liked using, but I'm not affiliated with it at all.
I got A scaling with uchigatana +25,using double slash ash of war with electrify armament, nice dps and I get to keep heavy armor and strength, defense and stamina buffing talismans. I further buff damage using claw mark seal since I'm using pure strength build. Some weapons perform amazing at +25 even though they seem to only scale via dexterity, but uchigatana gives A scaling in strength too at +25. So u can use fast weapons and also use strength build.
I’ve done some testing and it appears the damage of your AoW is actually stronger if the weapon affinity matches the AoW’s native scaling and not actually based on the weapon damage itself. Obviously this wouldn’t be true for AoW like lions claw where you physically strike the target with your weapon but beast roar does the exact same damage with an Estoc as it does with a dagger and is only decreased by changing from keen to a different affinity. I also tested the estoc with the lightning infusion giving it a higher ar and the beast roar still dealt less damage.
Fantastic breakdown but I feel like there's something I don't understand. So, brand new to the game. Just started playing. About 3 hours in. Only completed two small dungeons and that small ruined town before you get your steed. Samurai with the Uchigatana +1. About to watch your starting guide. Already watched the first video where you go through the cave of knowledge. it was really helpful. Want to play it before the expansion comes out in June. So my sword has a skill, Unsheath. If I use Storm Stomp, my only ash of war, it's replaced. But I don't understand the stat changes. As a standard affinity it changes my weapon to "Quality." But the FP Costs goes to: - ( 10 15 ) -> 6 ( - - ) I know unsheath has a FP cost. But it says -. and what does the 10 to 15 mean? I assume the 6 is the new cost of storm stomp? Then my physical power: 121 + 28 -> 104 + 35 I learned from your guide that it's weapon damage + stat modifier Based on the weapon guide, you're telling me by adding the storm stomp, the damage of the weapon goes down? Even thought it's now called a "Quality Uchigatana +1?" But notice that the dex damage modifier went up from 28 to 35. That's because my scaling modifier now says: STR D -> C Dex D -> C So the ash of war improves my attribute scaling. Is that from the "Quality" modifier? Am I understanding all this right? That this ash of war actually makes my weapon worse, but the scaling better. So once I have a high Dex I will do more damage. But I have to wait to apply it until after I find the break even point? But by then I'll probably have better weapons and better ashes. But for now, better not to use it because I do 10 less damage?
Ok I'm glad you asked the first question because I actually never knew for sure exactly what each of those FP values represented, but I just tested it. The first number, outside of the parenthesis, is the activation cost for the ash of war, so the cost of hitting LT or L2 depending on what controller you're using. Some ashes of war allow you to chain follow up attacks, and the first and second values inside the parenthesis translate to the FP cost of those follow up attacks if you follow up with a light or heavy attack respectively. So for storm stomp, if you hit the skill button, it performs storm stomp, and it costs 6 FP. However, there are no follow up attacks available with storm stomp, it's just a one off skill, so the values inside the parenthesis are empty. On the other hand, hitting the skill button with unsheathe is free because it just makes your character go into a readied stance, it doesn't actually make you attack, hence the "-" outside the parenthesis, but while you're holding the skill button, ready to perform unsheathe, you can choose to follow that up with a light or heavy attack for either the horizontal or vertical slash, and those will cost either 10 or 15 FP. As for the rest, you have most of it right. Scaling is much less helpful at low levels, so it's not uncommon at all for a weapon to actually do less damage if you grant it an affinity that lowers the base damage. Despite the name, "quality" doesn't actually make the weapon better per se, quality is just the term for more or less equal STR/DEX scaling, hence why they both have C scaling after choosing the quality affinity, but unless you're running a quality build where you level your character's STR/DEX equally, quality affinity is probably not your best option. But to answer your question, yes, it is the "quality" modifier that is improving your attribute scaling, but it's pretty much just a coincidence that the scaling values increased since the word quality is only referring to which stats the weapon scales with, the game does mean "quality" as in higher quality. You should be able to choose which affinity you want as soon as you equip an ash of war. They are mostly independent of each other (not every ash of war can be paired with every affinity, but it's pretty lenient), so you should be able to equip storm stomp and just choose the standard affinity to maintain the original stats and scaling on the uchigatana if you want to. If you do want to lean into DEX (which is recommended on the uchigatana), you'll actually want the "keen" affinity. Keen will basically all but remove STR scaling, but boost dexterity scaling significantly. This early in the game, there's a good chance it could still be worse than standard affinity, but long term it will be much stronger. In summary, the ash of war isn't actually affecting your weapon damage or scaling at all, the affinity is. It's just that you have to pick an ash of war and affinity at the same time, so it's easy to assume they're the same thing, but the ash of war is strictly the ability you put on the weapon and the affinity determines the stats.
Great video! Packs a lot of info in an easy to understand format, love it. This may be a dumb question but how close do STR and DEX scaling values have to be to classify as a "quality" weapon? Like, why is Bloodhound's fang(+0) considered "quality" when it has 44/65 Str/Dex scaling values?
I’ve never really thought about it honestly. I think quality for me has always been a way to avoid min/maxing and open up the flexibility to use lots of different weapons. As a general rule I just check to see if the weapon seems to benefit from leveling both stats as I level up, and if it’s clear that neglecting either str or dex is going to make me miss out on a lot of damage, then it must be quality. I will say that quality weapons definitely got a bad deal in Elden Ring and almost anything that can get a quality infusion is usually better with heavy or keen at relative levels, which I think is just due to the fact that you level so high and really push your saturation value so much in this game. But again, leveling both of those stats opens up so many possibilities and is great for experimenting with different weapons even if you aren’t breaking any records damage-wise on a true quality build.
I don’t really talk a lot in real life and have a pretty quiet, monotone voice, so sometimes when I try to project it just sounds angry. I don’t mean to come across that way, just can’t help it sometimes.
all good! For all I know you were just a little weary from creating such a detailed video. I dunno. I wasn't trying to be critical, but clearly it came across that way. Sorry man. I love your content and have subscribed. Thanks for replying! @@TheGhostInitiative
I still don't understand why someone would go for a quality build if you can set weapon affinity isn't it always better to pick keen or heavy or something? What is the advantage of leveling str and dex equally?
Quality build is nice for being able to use all kinds of weapons. Quality affinity lets you take advantage of scaling from building your character with a balanced stat spread. That being said, the quality affinity is usually less damage than heavy or keen. Min/maxing and committing to full dex or strength is stronger, but quality is good enough to get by and you get the convenience of using interesting weapons you find without having to respec. Best bet is still to just check on each weapon to see which affinity gives you the most damage though. Basically quality builds aren’t bad, but quality affinity usually is. I think that is probably a result of quality affinity being pretty OP in dark souls 3, but it’s definitely too weak in elden ring in my opinion.
@@TheGhostInitiative thanks for the reply. I think I just overcomplicate it all it my head because no matter how many videos I watch it still hasn't clicked. And I've already put 160+ hours into ER, not to mention other souls games. But then I'm bad at stats and maths. Maybe I need to stop thinking about stats first and literally just think of it like 'what weapon do I want to use' before anything else and then stats come after.
Yeah I’ll admit I have played a ton of these games so my point of view is a little different, but I will always go for what is fun or cool over what is best for damage. Sometimes that ends of being the same thing, but none of the souls games or elden ring are hard enough to need to min/max to beat them with a little practice. No need to get caught up in the stats and make a “perfect” build if you don’t want to.
@@TheGhostInitiative Oh, for sure, ER is shockingly easy if you use everything at your disposal (talking about you summons) I just have this thing where I need to know the inner workings of something, like, why am I doing this, even if I don't need to and clearly am incapable of understanding 😅 anyways, thanks for the replies
Hopefully i will find video where it says is it worth dumping points or not and how much. I understand how it works but due to hidden numbers i dont know what im doing before googling it
Man, i love your guide and explanation. Sometimes i always watch guide or tips BEFORE i even play the game, not because of spoilers but because i want to know how confusing that game system can be. I love watching guide but at the same time i also hate looking up guide. I don’t want to get into the game for 5 minutes and then have to tab out to search what the hell am i looking at. Is it really that hard to make a proper tutorial that is beginner friendly, non confusing but also don’t treat people like a child and spoon fed them everything?
They should really use color saturation to show how good of a scale it really has. So a weak B could be light green and a strong B could be dark green. etc.
I feel like I should have earned some college credits after watching this video.
Its almost like creatin a complex combat system is difficult
RUclips is pretty much free college
fr
Just put it on your resume with the link to this video
Fr I need this count towards my math requirements 😂
This is such a high quality video. The math, the mic quality, the footage in the background. Also a really detailed analysis. This should have a lot more views
I appreciate it
I'll second this wholeheartedly. This video in conjunction with the stats one cover the foundational mechanics of this game perfectly, and also articulated in an easily understandable and digestible manner. Incredible work.
I guess most veteran soulsbourne players don't need noob help like us lol but it's absolutely appreciated
@@chrisdoran3673 I consider myself a veteran here but it is still very much appreciated
One point on mic: In Audacity you can apply filters to smooth down the sharp edges on your "SS" sounds, for example: SSSomber SSSmithing SStone. If that is a concern for you of course.
No other video explained this games leveling system better than you. And I’ve watched countless videos. Thank you!!
It's worth mentioning that cold infused weapons have different scaling than magic infused, even if both deal magic damage. Magic infusions seem to completely mangle pre-existing attribute scaling, and give a big chunk of intelligence scaling instead. The physical and magic base damage will also be the same (unless the weapon already had split damage before.)
On the other hand Cold infusions will retain previous scaling to a degree and just add a sizeable chunk of int scaling. The physical base damage will also be a decent bit higher than the magical base damage. However, both base damages will likely be lower than that of a straight magic infusion, as a detriment due to the added status damage.
The rule of thumb for weapons that at base scale with STR and DEX is to allocate anywhere 50% to 70% of the levels you want to spend on damage in STR/DEX and the rest in INT. This is actually very practical because int scaling ashes of war (like Carian Grandeur for example) pretty much hard cap at 50 int. Any further investment might not even give you a single point of additional damage in some cases.
Example, all weapons at +25:
Broadsword has 286 base damage (82/33 scaling), magic is 224/224 (10/5/86), cold is 201/162 (93/36/60)
If you mainly want to level STR and INT for this build, a 60/40 split would work really well. I did some testing 60 STR 10 DEX and 40 INT yields 577 combined AR. It actually plateaus at that stat investment. Moving up to 10 points from INT to STR will increase the AR only to 578. Vice Versa will only lower it down to 573 AR. So, if you want to get a lot out of magic/cold scaling ashes of war, you might as well go 50/50.
Lordsworn's Straight Sword has 281 base damage(54/54), magic is 220/220 (6/6/79), cold is 198/158 (60/60/64)
So, LSS is like a 3 way Quality build. It could be a really strong option in higher new games if you have the levels to spend on STR, DEX, and INT, though I haven't tested it.
Damn the comments are just as useful as the video
Amazing breakdown sir. After 2 years off and on with the game this is the first video that gave me an “aha!” moment of understanding.
Please keep these up for any game you’re passionate about. You have a gift of simplifying extremely complex systems and the overlayed lists and equations are sooo helpful! (I do be screenshotting)
😂 Same!!! This Is Fantastic!!! I Understand A Hellofva Lot More Now!
@@captainxit5573 aw yisss
Lmao same asf
Facts 🎯
From someone who got the platinum for Elden ring but never really got into weapon affinities and scaling this video is perfect. Thanks for this perfect analysis bro 🙏🙏
Masterpiece of a video, along with your other stat scaling video. Thank you for being so concise and clear, no small feat considering the options available in this game.
Gee my boy! This is the most exhaustive, clear and clean video guide i've ever seen on youtube. Great work!
I feel like this is the first video in 100s where I learned something new. Well done and thank you!
This , hands down, is the absolute best break down on scaling I have EVER seen!! You definitely have a new sub here. Well done, excellent!!
I felt a tingle when you said "Math". Since Chrightt is covering AC6 I've been craving content with equations. Thank you and great content.
Hey I just got my bachelors in mechanical engineering at UofT and I gotta say you are sooooo well spoken and great at conveying points. You are better than 90% of my professors! You earned a sub from both of my channels and I'll tell all my friends about ur vids. As a math nerd I really appreciated the backend calculation rundown. Thanks again!
Ayyyyy ME gang. You know how it is with those mechanical engineering professors, we have to teach ourselves everything half the time
@@TheGhostInitiative 😂don't get me started on those profs. And what a coincidence I had no idea u were ME too lol
I am, got my bachelors in 2022
This is absolutely incredible! I’ve been looking for a breakdown like this for so long and I’ve learned so much from this video. This is my first souls game and I’ve been absolutely grinding my way through in the most basic way possible. This now has me so pumped to hop back in the game and try a ton of new builds!
This deserves so many more views and I can’t wait to watch more of your videos. Fantastic work!!
Best guide for Elden Ring I've seen anywhere so far - thank you for the excellent work!
I really don't get why doesn't ER just give me the scaling value directly, instead of the letter grade it's in. The UI has more than enough room to show the information.
Would it really still be a From Soft game if it wasn't impossibly confusing for new players?
@@TheGhostInitiative ER was my first Fromsoft game. It was very confusing at first. Actually it still is, even after 1200 hours in the game.
This vid was so helpful and most of all easy to follow. Best Elden ring weapon guide I’ve seen so far
Absolutely fantastic guide, thank you. Honestly professional grade.
this is super helpful! elden ring is my first fromsoft game and its really overwhelming but the video was super informative and answered alot of the questions ive been having. thank you so much 🙏🏾
Perfectly explained everything. You answered so many questioned I had despite looking at the wiki like a mad man. Thank you!
Absolutely insane how good this video is. So well laid out, explained in an order that covered each topic and subtopic perfectly. I had trouble grasping certain concepts and why one choice of skill did nothing with another.
Keep it up my bro. Awesome content.
I've played through all the Soulsborne games and have never really properly understood this stuff, so Elden Ring was additionally confusing for me with the addition of the Ashes of War system. This video did a great job of clearing up a lot of the confusion I had. Thanks and keep up the good work!
I love this. Everything about this video is A tier. Except your voice and delivery. That's a fucking S for stoic and sexy.
Dude this has helped me so much. Great video. It's hard to find explanations that are clear and helpful, and this is both. Thank you
Love the high quality and educational content especially since I have recently become obsessed with Elden ring
Insane quality Video here 👏🏼 thank you very much other then the graphs and stuff cause i struggle with that type of stuff it was otherwise very informative so good job 💯
If you're going to do a hybrid magic build and planning to use one of the spells that create a magic enchantment over the right hand weapon - like Order's Blande and Scholar's Armament - know that your damage only comes from the scalling of your main stat: intelligence for sorceries and faith for incantantions.
Your videos are wonderful and the occasional humor is much appreciated. These deserve more views 👏
Also I have never met you but you are my kind of person. Clear, concise, and you obviously love math and logic. Never change.
I learned a lot, thank you.
Additionally, thank you for no spoiler clips.
And also your cinematic shots are not lost on us, they look great. I especially liked the idea of the shot at 13:16 Looks good! Said good! Thanks!
fantastic, everything I was looking for in one video and perfectly explained. As someone who prefers to study the game mechanics beforehand I felt I was blind and overwhelmed in my first playthrough, now I have a lot more info to play around with. Thank you.
Best video I have found on weapons and scaling …thank you, helped me so much.
This deserves a million views, thank you finally making it make sense... as much as elden ring can ig
I just wanted to take the time to say I appreciate the time it must have taken to prep & make this video. And you did so very well. You sir, are a Legend.
Really appreciate the high quality, clear, and understandable video I’ve seen for Elden ring so far. I just started my first play through and am new to soulslikes and this was super easy for me to understand. ⚔️🏹🗡️🛡️
Been playing since Dark souls 2, I am finally watching a video to understand how to properly tink around with making my own sort of builds LOL. Appreciate you
Definitely a high quality vid. Great stuff!
totally what I needed, explain some basic stuff and I just skip more complicated but maybe one day I will need it. Great video
Superb video. Informative, succinct. I only wish I could have watched this two years ago 😅
Oh god, this got me into a huge rabbit hole of trying to figure out what weapons would be best for my current build
Wonderfully made tutorial. Thank you for making the complex information easy to follow and pleasant to listen to.
Wow. Thank you, bro. I just started Elden Ring, and I've never played any From Soft game, nor have I ever played anything similar. Needless to say, I'm completely lost. This helps so much.
I just started playing Elden ring a month ago, my first fromsoftware game too, and this was incredibly helpful. Plus I work in analytics so this scratched a nerdy itch for me, I enjoyed the math more than I probably should have tbh
For anyone curious, there's 8 somber dragon stones per playthrough and 13 regular dragon stones.
man thank you. this video was so informative and explained so much i didn't understand!
Finally !!! I finally understand, and I didn't even have to do and differential equations.
Dude, thank you!!
This helps so much.
You rock, man!!
Amazing job researching and presenting all this! Thank you.
You probably won’t see this but thank you. I have never played any other Souls game so everything is so confusing. The game is so complex and you’ve helped a ton, thank you.
Hope you get some more subs dude, these vids are excellent. Detailed and edited well. Been going hard on E-Ring recently w/ the DLC coming out soon (hopefully).
Thank you so much for these videos that you have created. I’m taking these few days before the DLC releases to set my character up, and with this video and your video on the soft caps, I’m learning a lot of things that I never knew about the game, even being level 165. Even you explaining something as simple as damage scaling was super helpful, I never knew what the number on the right meant 😆
I now know that my character is a “strength-dex” character and super overleveled in endurance, I suppose. I just wanted to be strong and swift 😂 I want to learn some spells and incantations which is what inspired me to check out your video so I know how to properly respec my stat points.
holy shit dude, ive watched years of elden ring youtube, your vids are hands down top of the S tier for ER content. Great production, concise yet thorough, you have a talent for the presenting and VO work and your manner is super welcoming.
I really appreciate the kind words
I like math
Thank you, sunkern
OMG, this is so well explained.. Thank you very very much!!!
This video was extremely helpful, thank you for making it!
the transitions make me feel like i accidentally started my elden ring everytime it happens lmfao
Bro did mankind a great service for making this epic video
Dude, I've been looking for this exact video for so long. Thank you. Everyone else is like 'Blas blade go burr, Trust me'.
super underrated man well done
Thank you my good sir!. Best of the best video explenation ever made!
I just found your channel today and subbed bc of this great presentation. I look forward to lots of Elden Ring content from u
Amazing quality video. well done Mr.
For real this is a piece of (guide) art
So incredibly useful.
You're hardcore. These videos are great and excellent for reference. I hope you're able to complete your walkthrough series because no doubt they'll be the best of their kind for this game.
Amazing video, man! Super helpful! I wish I had found it earlier!
AN important thing to remember with strength scaling is whether or not you are two handing the weapon. For example, I prefer two handing the uchigatana, it fits the aesthetic. Even though it has better dex scaling, you get more damage when you use a heavy infusion and invest in strength, because every point in strength is worth 1.5 when two handing.
Insane quality video. Subbed and liked.
Awesome
Job
Elden Ring should use this video as the official manual. Brilliant!
Awesome vid. Perfect for me just getting in to ER.
Tks! Videos like that makes me believe in humanity once more.
What gives better Stormblade damage? It’s a quality ash of war but does that mean either STR/DEX at 80, or both STR and DEX?
You would want to level both for quality. Another thing to keep in mind with stormblade though is that it can hit twice at close range because the wind and your weapon hit at the same time, so having a weapon with high base attack power really makes it shine.
damage calulator is not working, is there a new link? great video!!
Yeah, it just went down the other day. I’m hoping it’s just temporary while they update it to include dlc weapons, but if not there are lots of other ones if you google elden ring weapon ar calculators. That was just the one I liked using, but I'm not affiliated with it at all.
I got A scaling with uchigatana +25,using double slash ash of war with electrify armament, nice dps and I get to keep heavy armor and strength, defense and stamina buffing talismans. I further buff damage using claw mark seal since I'm using pure strength build. Some weapons perform amazing at +25 even though they seem to only scale via dexterity, but uchigatana gives A scaling in strength too at +25. So u can use fast weapons and also use strength build.
Great video. Keep doing this people will sub don’t quit
cheers man. cleared up Affinity's for me, lol
Excellent video and helpful guide! Thank you!!
Very well explained thumbs up for this explanation, although is it me hearing some thunderstorms background or its only my imaginations
Thank you, that was very helpful.
Yes very well put together. ✌✌
In the weapon type section maybe include a blurb about power stancing similar weapon types
Thanks for this. A well earned sub
You just got yourself a sub awesome video
I'm gonna leave another comment here for the algorithm. More tarnished need to see this before the DLC drops.
I’ve done some testing and it appears the damage of your AoW is actually stronger if the weapon affinity matches the AoW’s native scaling and not actually based on the weapon damage itself. Obviously this wouldn’t be true for AoW like lions claw where you physically strike the target with your weapon but beast roar does the exact same damage with an Estoc as it does with a dagger and is only decreased by changing from keen to a different affinity. I also tested the estoc with the lightning infusion giving it a higher ar and the beast roar still dealt less damage.
Fantastic breakdown but I feel like there's something I don't understand.
So, brand new to the game. Just started playing. About 3 hours in. Only completed two small dungeons and that small ruined town before you get your steed. Samurai with the Uchigatana +1. About to watch your starting guide. Already watched the first video where you go through the cave of knowledge. it was really helpful. Want to play it before the expansion comes out in June.
So my sword has a skill, Unsheath. If I use Storm Stomp, my only ash of war, it's replaced. But I don't understand the stat changes.
As a standard affinity it changes my weapon to "Quality."
But the FP Costs goes to: - ( 10 15 ) -> 6 ( - - )
I know unsheath has a FP cost. But it says -. and what does the 10 to 15 mean? I assume the 6 is the new cost of storm stomp?
Then my physical power: 121 + 28 -> 104 + 35
I learned from your guide that it's weapon damage + stat modifier
Based on the weapon guide, you're telling me by adding the storm stomp, the damage of the weapon goes down? Even thought it's now called a "Quality Uchigatana +1?"
But notice that the dex damage modifier went up from 28 to 35. That's because my scaling modifier now says: STR D -> C Dex D -> C
So the ash of war improves my attribute scaling. Is that from the "Quality" modifier?
Am I understanding all this right? That this ash of war actually makes my weapon worse, but the scaling better. So once I have a high Dex I will do more damage. But I have to wait to apply it until after I find the break even point? But by then I'll probably have better weapons and better ashes. But for now, better not to use it because I do 10 less damage?
Ok I'm glad you asked the first question because I actually never knew for sure exactly what each of those FP values represented, but I just tested it. The first number, outside of the parenthesis, is the activation cost for the ash of war, so the cost of hitting LT or L2 depending on what controller you're using. Some ashes of war allow you to chain follow up attacks, and the first and second values inside the parenthesis translate to the FP cost of those follow up attacks if you follow up with a light or heavy attack respectively.
So for storm stomp, if you hit the skill button, it performs storm stomp, and it costs 6 FP. However, there are no follow up attacks available with storm stomp, it's just a one off skill, so the values inside the parenthesis are empty. On the other hand, hitting the skill button with unsheathe is free because it just makes your character go into a readied stance, it doesn't actually make you attack, hence the "-" outside the parenthesis, but while you're holding the skill button, ready to perform unsheathe, you can choose to follow that up with a light or heavy attack for either the horizontal or vertical slash, and those will cost either 10 or 15 FP.
As for the rest, you have most of it right. Scaling is much less helpful at low levels, so it's not uncommon at all for a weapon to actually do less damage if you grant it an affinity that lowers the base damage. Despite the name, "quality" doesn't actually make the weapon better per se, quality is just the term for more or less equal STR/DEX scaling, hence why they both have C scaling after choosing the quality affinity, but unless you're running a quality build where you level your character's STR/DEX equally, quality affinity is probably not your best option. But to answer your question, yes, it is the "quality" modifier that is improving your attribute scaling, but it's pretty much just a coincidence that the scaling values increased since the word quality is only referring to which stats the weapon scales with, the game does mean "quality" as in higher quality.
You should be able to choose which affinity you want as soon as you equip an ash of war. They are mostly independent of each other (not every ash of war can be paired with every affinity, but it's pretty lenient), so you should be able to equip storm stomp and just choose the standard affinity to maintain the original stats and scaling on the uchigatana if you want to. If you do want to lean into DEX (which is recommended on the uchigatana), you'll actually want the "keen" affinity. Keen will basically all but remove STR scaling, but boost dexterity scaling significantly. This early in the game, there's a good chance it could still be worse than standard affinity, but long term it will be much stronger.
In summary, the ash of war isn't actually affecting your weapon damage or scaling at all, the affinity is. It's just that you have to pick an ash of war and affinity at the same time, so it's easy to assume they're the same thing, but the ash of war is strictly the ability you put on the weapon and the affinity determines the stats.
Thanks so much for clarifying this. It's a huge help! I also really appreciate your guides!@@TheGhostInitiative
Excellent guide sir!
This is great. Thank you!
masterclass !! thx !
Great video! Packs a lot of info in an easy to understand format, love it.
This may be a dumb question but how close do STR and DEX scaling values have to be to classify as a "quality" weapon? Like, why is Bloodhound's fang(+0) considered "quality" when it has 44/65 Str/Dex scaling values?
I’ve never really thought about it honestly. I think quality for me has always been a way to avoid min/maxing and open up the flexibility to use lots of different weapons. As a general rule I just check to see if the weapon seems to benefit from leveling both stats as I level up, and if it’s clear that neglecting either str or dex is going to make me miss out on a lot of damage, then it must be quality.
I will say that quality weapons definitely got a bad deal in Elden Ring and almost anything that can get a quality infusion is usually better with heavy or keen at relative levels, which I think is just due to the fact that you level so high and really push your saturation value so much in this game. But again, leveling both of those stats opens up so many possibilities and is great for experimenting with different weapons even if you aren’t breaking any records damage-wise on a true quality build.
Great video! You sounded frustrated as you talked about everything, but I imagine that’s just because of how much work you had to put into this video?
I don’t really talk a lot in real life and have a pretty quiet, monotone voice, so sometimes when I try to project it just sounds angry. I don’t mean to come across that way, just can’t help it sometimes.
all good! For all I know you were just a little weary from creating such a detailed video. I dunno. I wasn't trying to be critical, but clearly it came across that way. Sorry man. I love your content and have subscribed. Thanks for replying! @@TheGhostInitiative
You’re good, I appreciate it
I still don't understand why someone would go for a quality build if you can set weapon affinity isn't it always better to pick keen or heavy or something? What is the advantage of leveling str and dex equally?
Quality build is nice for being able to use all kinds of weapons. Quality affinity lets you take advantage of scaling from building your character with a balanced stat spread. That being said, the quality affinity is usually less damage than heavy or keen.
Min/maxing and committing to full dex or strength is stronger, but quality is good enough to get by and you get the convenience of using interesting weapons you find without having to respec. Best bet is still to just check on each weapon to see which affinity gives you the most damage though. Basically quality builds aren’t bad, but quality affinity usually is.
I think that is probably a result of quality affinity being pretty OP in dark souls 3, but it’s definitely too weak in elden ring in my opinion.
@@TheGhostInitiative thanks for the reply. I think I just overcomplicate it all it my head because no matter how many videos I watch it still hasn't clicked. And I've already put 160+ hours into ER, not to mention other souls games. But then I'm bad at stats and maths. Maybe I need to stop thinking about stats first and literally just think of it like 'what weapon do I want to use' before anything else and then stats come after.
Yeah I’ll admit I have played a ton of these games so my point of view is a little different, but I will always go for what is fun or cool over what is best for damage. Sometimes that ends of being the same thing, but none of the souls games or elden ring are hard enough to need to min/max to beat them with a little practice. No need to get caught up in the stats and make a “perfect” build if you don’t want to.
@@TheGhostInitiative Oh, for sure, ER is shockingly easy if you use everything at your disposal (talking about you summons) I just have this thing where I need to know the inner workings of something, like, why am I doing this, even if I don't need to and clearly am incapable of understanding 😅 anyways, thanks for the replies
Hopefully i will find video where it says is it worth dumping points or not and how much. I understand how it works but due to hidden numbers i dont know what im doing before googling it
Holy crap this video is so useful!
Man, i love your guide and explanation. Sometimes i always watch guide or tips BEFORE i even play the game, not because of spoilers but because i want to know how confusing that game system can be.
I love watching guide but at the same time i also hate looking up guide. I don’t want to get into the game for 5 minutes and then have to tab out to search what the hell am i looking at.
Is it really that hard to make a proper tutorial that is beginner friendly, non confusing but also don’t treat people like a child and spoon fed them everything?
They should really use color saturation to show how good of a scale it really has. So a weak B could be light green and a strong B could be dark green. etc.
This game is so complicated that I had to have 20 in intelligence just to buy the game
This got my insight past 60
You can see the truth (just level strength)
So, it's always better to go with cold since it does the same as straight up magic, but adds frost build?
Well fucking made. Ive learned more shit from this video alone than anything i have ever learned from school. Thanks man❤
Thank you! After spending 50 hours in Elden ring, now I think I understand more about it! Jajaja