DARK SOULS III HYPE: 2 STATS & SCALING

GET SOUL, GET SWOLE

As long as there's souls in dark souls, there's going to be levels; and as long as there's levels, there's going to be scaling. Physical damage is going going to come from some mix of strength & speed and spell damage will come from some mix of smarts or faith. In some way, each souls character is bound to become someone's soul-gorged murder monster with a face that even a blind mother couldn't love.

"END. ME."

However; as per human nature, after the experimental phase, trends from previous games will start to form. People will discover the inherent advantages of certain tools of the game, and wring every last drop of life from it until it causes homeland security to elevate to code blue. There's been enough resonant weapon chaos blades and Havel-mages to make people drop the concept of PvP in Dark Souls a whole. That in itself is a true shame, because the souls series is not supposed to be a single player experience. It's a tad extreme to say that it isn't supposed to be a 'pleasant' experience, but it's not supposed to be a peachy-keen skip through a meadow of daisies. It's a dark and depressing cutthroat setting where people are willing to prey on the weak to further their own agenda, and it's an uphill battle to make friends. There will be an entire article about why Souls PvP is the way it is; but for now, the point is that Dark Souls isn't supposed to have an easy mode.

If you've played a souls game, you've likely familiarized yourself with each of these weapons seperately, because they are universally amazing in most situations. They have essentially become the 'Easy Mode' of the Souls series, because people are used to them being able to solve pretty much any problem that they face. Everything in dark souls can be either counter-hit, critical'd, sweeping swung, or crushed to death; and in every one of those situations, there's a sword for that. Of course, each of these weapons have their flaws when pitted against each other, but almost every single one of them has made a cameo in some previous edition of the souls series. Those that are good at timing will always prefer Dexterity weapons, and those that prefer rewarding trades will prefer Strength Weapons. Although scaling, the measure of damage per stat point, is definitely the biggest issue; infusions have totally complicated the concept of 'balanced damage,' and it shows. You can find more in-depths details about infusions here, but below will be a brief summary of the situation.

Essentially, you can expect there to still be some sort of ‘Ore’ system in place. Without looking in to any specifics, chances are FromSoft will be sticking with the name ‘Titanite.’ However, the point remains that you’ll most likely be spending a fair amount of time or souls on gathering some black rocks to make your beat-stick sharper and your silly hat more protective. How many ores you may discover along the way may vary based on how many enemies you kill, or how much exploring you are willing to do. Regardless, two pieces of advice remains consistent about the Souls-series early game.

DAMAGE > DEFENCE

and,

SPEED > ARMOR

Unless enormous changes are going to be made to how armor works, you can’t clear an area without the enemies in the area dying. Having a half decent weapon makes this task significantly easier than relying on environmental hazards, or slowly pin-pricking your foes to death. Although the concept of ‘Death by One-Thousand Cuts’ may be badass, it is no way to conduct battle. You may be able to survive for one thousand swings, but that means you need to wait for one thousand openings, drop your guard one thousand times, expose yourself to one thousand possible counter attacks and one thousand chances that you over-step your swing and throw yourself off a cliff.

Ultimately, if FromSoft hasn’t decided to scrap Dark Souls II’s infusion system as a whole, you’re most likely going to take a look at a chart like this, and decide which agent of doom is most suited to you and your character. Faith characters scales best with Lightning, Intelligence scales best with Magic/Enchanted. Dark & Fire are useful for a mix of both Intelligence and Faith, and because of the spells associated with them, were extremely popular for a while. On some weapons, Raw is best when meeting the bare minimum requirements of the weapon, as it adds a set amount of bonus damage that isn't dependant on stats. Mundane, when playing at higher levels can make some weapons that are normally terrible, viable by adding scaling that is based on your lowest stat. Lastly, poison and bleed are also a pair of decent weapon mechanics which after a certain amount of build up on the enemy, will trigger bonus damage; however, both have been proven largely ineffective if not literally useless in most practical situations. 

You should most likely expect a system very similar to this in Dark Souls III, as infusions of some sort have been around in almost every game. If you plan on being a magic user of any kind, look for stones that may resemble whatever kind of caster you are, and be ready to give it to a smith to maximize your weapon's potential. Just be wary that certain kinds of enemies will be more resistant to your damage type than others, and in many case you problems that other characters may not face.

Keep in touch, because coming up are even more details about scaling specifically for weapons so keep posted and make sure to follow @SoulsHype to stay updated on future posts.