Dark souls 3 Invasions: Weapons Part 2

This is the second part of weapons I've had solid success with in invasions.

Straight swords:
Straight swords, in my opinion, are the best weapons in the game right now. They swing just slightly slower than the rapier and the small curved swords but have a much better hit box because of the horizontal swing. It's still not good to spam R1 but the weapon can't really be spot parried so R1 is definitely going to be your bread and butter. Just don't mash on it unless you are 100% sure the enemy doesn't know what the Parry button is. The best thing to do is One hanged R1, R1, R2 on straight swords where the R2 is the stab attack. I think this excludes the dark sword but Fuck the dark sword forever. This combination will catch most people who roll away with the stab attack because it takes almost the exact time of the roll to come out and the hotbox extends a good deal longer than the model. The lothric knight sword and anri's straight sword are my two favorites. I think the lothric knight sword has legitimately the best moveset, because of the 2 handed R2 thrust attack, but use whichever one you like or your build is specced out for. The other reason the straight swords are amazing is the weapon art: the shield splitter. L2+ R1 will pop open 90% of shields and leave the opponent open for a riposte. This is so useful when you have 3 gankers turtling behind shields. Combined with the hornet ring, this can make short work of the shield happy gank squad.

Sellsword Twinblades:
This is probably the best dex weapon for invasions and it's simply because it does a lot of damage very quickly. Both 2 handed R1, L2, R2 and L1, L2, R2 combo. The second one does more damage I believe but 2 handed L1 is easier to Parry. This weapon has been nerfed 3 times and it still does just an immense amount of damage. The popular way to use this weapon, thanks to oroboro, is to run it with the darkmoon blade buff. Crystal magic weapon or lightning will also actually do fine because it just adds damage. The buff and the damage from the combo just generally delete phantoms with one touch. You can also run the weapon without the buff on a quality or dex build but you are going to have to hit everyone twice, usually. If you can get the opponent healing, the combo will out damage the estus. It might take a few hits, but you should be able to finish them off with ease.

Invasions in Dark Souls 3: Weapons

This post is just for weapons that I personally have had success in invasions with and weapons that I have seen a lot of success with. You can really use whatever weapon you want but some are just better saved for duels. If you have fun with a certain weapon over others, try it out though. The game is still young and things are still being discovered. I think I will split this one into multiple parts also.

HYPER ARMOR:
First and foremost, weapons with hyper armor and are cannot be parried are going to be the easiest. Invading gankers is never easy, but these weapons will give you the best shot. Hyper armor, if you are not aware, is a property in dark souls 3, bloodborne, and many fighting games. The idea is that during your attack animation, you can take damage for a hit or two but your animation will continue allowing you to do damage back. It still requires some calculation but ideally you would do more damage to your opponent than they will do to you. This is most effective versus small, low damage weapons as opposed to high damage weapons that also have hyper armor. As a rule of thumb, the hyper armor starts as soon as the weapon has forward momentum. On some weapons it seems even earlier. I don't know the data on this honestly. Most huge weapons will have hyper armor. Anything that counts as an ultra greatsword, great axe, curved great swords, and great hammers. These specific weapons all have unparriable 2 handed R1 and R2 attacks (I believe curved great swords are just the 2 hand R2) which is another huge benefit. The other two weapons that I know have hyper armor are the regular greatswords when 2 handed and halberds. These two weapon classes are ALWAYS parriable though.

HORNET RING:
The second piece of equipment is the hornet ring. This does more damage when you get a riposte. The percentage is weird since a patch, but it's still fantastic. In my opinion, this is almost necessary in higher level invasions. You can't rely completely on Parry fishing, but if you get one you need to make it count if it's 1 versus 3-4. This ring has been nerfed but it can still one shot most phantoms since they have a 30% health deficit compared to the host. If you suck a parries, Parry fish for like 20-50 invasions and learn the timing or get a friend to swing at you for a while. It's essential when invading if you want to have a solid success rate.

Invasions in Dark Souls 3: Soul Level

If you have played Dark Souls 3 for an extended period of time or pay attention, you have probably experienced the pain of invading or at least heard complaints about it. There are some very legitimate complaints about invasions, but this was they game we were given. You don't have to play it if you don't like it. In my opinion, invasions in DS3 are some of the most fun I've ever had in a game. Killing 2-5 gankers is a really rewarding achievement, especially in a game as difficult as dark souls. I have a few ideas and tips for you if you are looking to start invading, get better, or just hear some ideas that I've had success with. I'm going to break this up into multiple parts so it's easier to digest and separate.

SOUL LEVEL:
This is a question that a lot of people have: what level do I take my character to? That is completely up to you, but in order to get the most invasions you are going to want to cap your level somewhere that YOU like invading. It's really that simple. I personally have characters at 70, 100, and 120. The invasion range is +-10 soul levels AND +-2 weapon levels so logically you can go up or down 10 levels from my levels and still get solid results.

Taking your build to level 70 can be considerably easier for invasions than 120 because you HAVE to sacrifice some stats in that level. You just don't have room to be completely optimized. Chances are the players you are coming up against have no idea what PVP is, or are building to 120. Either way, their stats are going to be all fucked up at 70. The reason 70 is better than say, 30, is that you can have your stats and weapon at a level where you can kill phantoms fairly quickly. You only want to take your weapon to +8 if you plan on invading at level 70. This will allow you to invade the people with maxed weapons, but you won't be excluded from the people with +6 weapons. At certain points in the game, titanite chunks are few and far between so this seems to be the optimal upgrade point for invading people who are blindly playing through the game and where you get the most damage and most invasions.

The 100-120 range can be considerably harder to deal with. You don't have to make very many sacrifices at these levels and fighting 4 invaders with all ultra weapons or have a caster in their midst or everyone has tears of denial cast....the list goes on. These invasions can be fucking difficult. However, you can still have some success if you're pretty good and they can still be a lot of fun. Just be aware that unless you have certain builds, the gankers are going to be ridiculous sometimes...I mean seriously. It's like they think they are playing halo or something, they need a team to win, and they are going to go to dark souls nationals for the team championship. It can be really dumb. If you also want to do duels and have a complete build this range is the one you want to take your characters to.

More on Build Optimization

After some experimenting with a pure dex build and some other builds, I have a quick bit of information that was not really clear to me on the last guide. This post is really about how scaling functions within the game and how it works with your build.

Scaling is how much your stats add damage to your weapon. They are indicated by a letter underneath the requirement stats of your weapon on your weapon information screen. The letters are from E-S. S is the best, meaning that it will add points for every level you have in that particular stat. E means you might accidentally get some damage with every 10 levels. Those two stats are the easy ones. The others get weird.

With your build, you want to shoot for C-S letter scaling. Many weapons will only become B, A, or S with an infusion. C will do pretty good damage with a particular stat, therefore B should be better...and it is, but sometimes only slightly. For example, at 45 dex (I believe that's what I had) I was doing 370 Attack Rating with the lothric knight sword, which is pretty good damage. I infused it with the sharp gem giving it B scaling and it went all the way up to...374 AR.  Nearly useless. It's just not really a good use of a gem.

The point I am trying to state is that the letters barely mean anything. The letters just indicate which stat is going to be better if you want to use that weapon. My lothric knight sword might scale slightly better if  I go 60 dex than it would have otherwise (I haven't, I usually only go 100 with my builds) but I haven't gone all the way up that high.

However, 370-374 is totally respectable damage. Trust me, I've killed a lot of people with that build...like 100+ invasions dominated. So if you have a weapon you want to use, and you have the stats to use it, go for it. Depending on your build, it might be fantastic or trash no matter what the letters say. Optimization is great for damage, but it's not the MOST important thing in the world if you can use the weapon to its full potential.