From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[Night Goat]

Some of them are good. I like the Defender Greatsword, Yorgh's Spear and Fume Ultra Greatsword. I've also seen a lot of players using Warped Sword, might be a good one for Dex builds.

 

[Gentle Player]

Might as well get the weapons - you never know what weapon you might fancy using later on in the game, but souls will always be easy to come by.

 

[Multidirectional]

Butcher's Knife is a very good boss soul weapon for STR builds. I used that a lot in my first run, hits hard, has decent moveset and even slightly heals you with each hit. I've won a lot of pvp fights with it too.

 

[Rolk's Drifter]

Decado

Yeah underwhelming is an apt description. Requiring petrified dragon bones doesn’t help their cause either. I don’t advise cashing their souls though. You should check the weapons out and see for yourself. Souls are easy to come by in this game and what constitutes a good weapon is often very personal. Especially in regards to fashion souls!

As well as Night Goat’s suggestions, I’ve found value in:

Watcher’s greatsword
Ruler’s greatsword
Spotted whip
Dragonrider Bow
Bow of Want
Chaos Blade (but that's NG+)

I haven’t infused much as I don’t like magic/buffing. But something to be aware of is that different weapons lose/gain different amounts of damage through infusing. The mannikin (sp?) sabre for example loses very little physical damage but gains a lot of elemental damage. so in that case it’s probably worth it. The old knight greatsword seems similar in that regard.

If you do infuse, you should also buff as the spells give a bonus to the elemental damage a weapon has. If you only want to dip your toe into spells for buffs then I recommend dark and fire. The buffs for those elements require very little stat investment and you get 4 casts per spell.

I always get bored of the battle axe too. It’s a good weapon but very bread and butter. Do you mix your attacks up? As in 1H/2H, rolling, sprinting and backstep attacks? Those and parrying help a lot in my experience to keep things fun. If you like axes you might want to try the Lions great axe, awesome rolling attack

Move set is important but so is play style. DS2 is a pretty miserable defensive or reactive experience imo. Much better if you play aggressive / proactive. You say you are wearing Havels, does this mean you turtle? If you do, I recommend you go back to an early area, go through it without armour/shield and see if you like it. Maybe try the warped sword as curved swords have a good running attack. Get naked, two hand the baby, go to the Forest of Fallen Giants and charge down everything you see! Well maybe not everything. Shield guys are a PITA but they are good practise for parrying and guard breaking which are also fun.

Edit: Also note some boss souls produce spells not weapons. So you might want to keep them just in case you decide to re-roll your char. Sacred Oath (Velstadt's soul) is definitely worth considering for a melee character. It buffs damage and defence!

 

[Decado]

Thanks for the advice Codex dudebros.

I cashed in pretty much all of my souls. I looked on YouTube and did some more research, all of the boss weapons look lame to me except for a few. I will be making the Old Iron King's hammer, because that looks pretty boss, but I'm really itching to get the Dragon Tooth so I can rock it like DS1. I usually don't play through NG+, so if I play through this game again, I will roll a Cleric type and hopefully get more out of infusions/elemental.

 

[praetor]

one thing of note: DaS2 NG+ is not like DaS1/DeS/BB NG+, in that some bosses have some additional... difficulty. and there are some red phantoms here and there, as well as some different loot. so while it's not something completely different, it wouldn't be a totally bad idea to play NG+ with a re-rolled character (just use a Soul Vessel before going to NG+) instead of starting over. it's not that different to NG, but at least it's something (unlike the other 3 games)

 

[Caim]

From what I've read you can find new stuff to buy (mainly stuff you'd otherwise only get when dealing with Covenants) up to New Game++.

 

[Murk]

Don't discount boss soul weapons too easily. They increase in damage at a much higher rate than standard weapons.

Standard weapons gain 10% per refine, totaling at 100%. Boss weapons get 30% per refine totalling at 150%. They also increase their stat scaling at a higher rate. There's a reason the warped sword is/was an idiotically popular and powerful weapon.

 

[Metro]

Seems like they took a note from the first where almost all of Boss Soul weapons were terrible compared to the basic ones.

 

[praetor]

Don't discount boss soul weapons too easily. They increase in damage at a much higher rate than standard weapons.

Standard weapons gain 10% per refine, totaling at 100%. Boss weapons get 30% per refine totalling at 150%. They also increase their stat scaling at a higher rate. There's a reason the warped sword is/was an idiotically popular and powerful weapon.

yup, a lot of "top tier" weapons are boss weapons. and for PvE, most are good to great and have something that is simply fun in their weapon class, and very few are outright shit (chime of screams, king's mirror and spitfire spear are the only "lol, wtf you doin', bro?" boss weapons, with the ivory sword close behind that is saved only by the "don't care, lightsaber" look )

 

[Decado]

Don't discount boss soul weapons too easily. They increase in damage at a much higher rate than standard weapons.

Standard weapons gain 10% per refine, totaling at 100%. Boss weapons get 30% per refine totalling at 150%. They also increase their stat scaling at a higher rate. There's a reason the warped sword is/was an idiotically popular and powerful weapon.

The problem I have with them is that they all seem like big, slow two handers, with the occasional DEX weapon.

 

[Decado]

Like, is there a boss soul long sword, or mace? Maybe I'm just reading the list wrong, but it seems like the "smaller" weapons get way less attention.

 

[Gentle Player]

There are a few curved swords, and a light club. No long swords except the Fume Sword from expansion boss, however. I feel that longsword lovers got the short end of the stick with DSII.

 

[praetor]

Like, is there a boss soul long sword, or mace? Maybe I'm just reading the list wrong, but it seems like the "smaller" weapons get way less attention.

Fume sword is very good (people used to think it's "top tier". close but no cigar. also, dex/dark so it's probably not for your current build?)

Barbed club is excellent

Butcher's knife (it looks big and is heavy, but it has the moveset/speed of a small axe)

Ivory straight sword ("good" might be stretching it, but it looks really cool . also, dex)

now, depending what you mean by "longsword", (i.e. "weapons in the same class as the weapon named longsword in the game, which aren't actually longswords" or "weapons that are the size of actual longsword, which in the game are named greatswords for some reason"), there might be more

There are a few curved swords, and a light club. No long swords except the Fume Sword from expansion boss, however. I feel that longsword lovers got the short end of the stick with DSII.

again, depending what you mean by "longsword" (see above) it's either: "wat? almost every straight sword is top tier, even that friggin foot soldier sword" or "well, there's a fair variety of greatswords, a lot of them are good to very good and excellent in PvE, but they're no worse than they were in DaS1 or DeS"

 

[Gentle Player]

"weapons in the same class as the weapon named longsword in the game, which aren't actually longswords"

That's what I was referring to, and honestly I just miss the nice little thrusting Strong Attack most of them had in DSI. In II, of that weapon class (and obviously not including rapiers and the like!) only Fume and Sun Sword have that thrust, or am I remembering it wrongly?

Edit: and, of course, Straight Sword is the weapon class as is referred to in the game, don't know why I wrote Longsword

 

[praetor]

That's what I was referring to, and honestly I just miss the nice little thrusting Strong Attack most of them had in DSI. In II, of that weapon class (and obviously not including rapiers and the like!) only Fume and Sun Sword have that thrust, or am I remembering it wrongly?

Edit: and, of course, Straight Sword is the weapon class as is referred to in the game, don't know why I wrote Longsword

not to worry, loads of people refer to them as longswords because of "the longsword"

anyway, Fume, Sun, Longsword, Foot soldier, Ashen, Short all have the thrust (and only Ashen has it both 1h and 2h, like the balder in DaS1... which i'm okay with, 'cause as much as i loved that thing, it was a bit too good), while in DaS1 the regular longsword, balder, short, sun and astora had it, so number-wise it's the same (except now some have it on the 2h instead of 1h moveset, while in DaS1 i think only the baller had it on the 2h moveset?)

 

[Murk]

Short Sword had the thrust in both stances... and doesn't the foot soldier sword, also?

Puzzling stone sword (whip sword) used to be my favvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvorite before the retarded tracking on it got nerfed. Still p good tho.

 

[praetor]

yes, you're right. brainfart on my part

 

[Murk]

shit happens ma nigga

--

The problem I have with them is that they all seem like big, slow two handers, with the occasional DEX weapon.

Praetor already answered this, but I'll chime in with another point. You're not wrong, in that most boss weapons are rather large (and often have a gimmick or otherwise 2fantasy4u grimdark styled.)

Most of the more subtle and, dare I say it, 'realistic' weapons are standard upgrades. For fast 1-handed weapons like straight swords, you'll mostly be looking at either normal weapons (standard) or special weapons (twinkling titanite).

What I will say is this, nearly every weapon can complete the game just fine -- so go for whatever moveset you like. Many weapons in DS 2 have hybrid movesets, where half is of one category and the rest is of another. For example, the yolo (yorgh) spear is part spear, part lance, has the run attack of the ladle, and a 1h overhead slam from the thorned greatsword.

The axe you've been using (assuming it's the battle axe or bandit axe) is actually really strong for both pve and pvp. It's one of the top tier weapons, and it's combination of strong attack power + good str scaling, moderate counter, good poise-break, and surprisingly fast and useful moveset makes it very good.

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

Also important to note... If you use Longsword, Warped Sword, Chaos Blade or Bandit Axe in PvP then you're a shitter.

Spoiler

 

[Jack Dandy]

The Drakeblood Knight armor looks fucking awesome!

Too bad Conan has no need for petty "civilized" protection.

 

[Redlands]

I just started playing this (even though I haven't technically finished Dark Souls 1 yet, though I'm practically done and I'm only doing other stuff out of completionism), and so far I've had a skeleton attack me and promptly fall down dead because I killed it at the start of its attack animation, and an Ironclad Soldier teleported over a hole to smash me.

Is this something I should assume happens often?

 

[Caconym]

I've had a skeleton attack me and promptly fall down dead because I killed it at the start of its attack animation

So what's the problem?

and an Ironclad Soldier teleported over a hole to smash me.

Never happened to me.

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

That also sounds like lag (if you were a phantom at the moment).

 

[janior]

Never got chance to play ds2 i'm planning to buy it soonish but i have a dilemma, should i pick up scholar of the first sin or basic 2? I really really don't want to buy all those dlcs separately, are they necessary for full experience? Also i heard that new enemy placements are annyoing as hell and they didn't add anything useful.