Wyrm's Guide to Str Builds (SL 120 and lower)

I tend to use the xbow only as a punisher - eg; someone is casting FT and they will eat 3 bolts to the head and suffer for it.

Yeah, xbows are perfect for punishing mistimed spells or attacks. I have been using them for months when everyone kept saying how much they sucked, I wasn't impressed with the avelyn since most people have a lot of poise and will take one shot and dodge the other two.

A few interesting points of about Ultra Greatswords that might be worth noting is that the stagger to swing time is exceptional, and, even with Lighting upgrade path that has increased delay in swing time, you can consistently land a backstab from the stun. This gives a roughly 1300 damage guaranteed from a hit on anyone without 77 poise. Another, more esoteric, trick you can pull with an offhand Ultra Greatsword is that you can combo off the stagger with many of the Straight Sword strong attacks. Most notably, you can do it with the Balder Side Sword, and if you do the attack twice, you can get an incredible amount of damage on a foe who uses less than 51 poise. I haven't bothered to try to get a backstab of that stagger; it costs considerable stamina when it lands, and leaves myself vulnerable. Another small trick is using the Zweihander Strong Attack against backstep into running attacks; the counter damage combined with the exceptional stagger of the attack makes a very good punish against Katanas, Curved Greatswords, and some Halberds.

Something worth noting is that Chameleon can go a long way to landing hits with Strength weapons, as it will mess up an opponents attempt to dodge. It isn't so useful for Great Axes, but you can go into a roll with other kinds, and, while at the very least avoid most punishment attempts, do one of the formidable roll attacks. Something worth talking about is Hidden Weapon as an alternate buff for Strength weapons; they would benefit a lot from invisibility, and it requires the same Intelligence investment as Chameleon, and one less than Great Magic Weapon. Another worth making a note of as well, is that the Great Hammer two-handed roll attack will always stagger the opponent regardless of poise.

Something worth investigating is the minimum Dexterity required to land a Great Combustion after a kick. Ideally, you would want to investigate this with someone you know who would have very little lag with yourself; the delay in registering a kick technically makes it easier to land the spell the greater the latency. Provided it isn't something absurd like 44 Dexterity, it maybe worth establishing as Statistical Breakpoint that could be used for people who'd want to use Elemental Strength Weapons.

Someone needs to test that!

Indeed Hidden Weapon is a good buff for Str weapons.

On another note with the zweihander and most of the GS/UGS 2h their roll attack is affected by the leo ring - it is a fantastic thing to do - I originally had a build like this http://tinyurl.com/935o3tx on a counter it would pretty much OHKO people. 'IT WAS MADNESS!' Madness? This sh*ts OP!

LOL amos you are a fan of low HP builds aren't you? Even with minimum requirements for the Zweih, it hits too hard.

I am what you call a hyper mode person - if you have been watching my DeS LP you will see that I am setting up the perfect hyper mode build xD

Hidden weapon is fun but it doesn't work as good in a dual since people will treat it as if it were slb cause they just run away and do nothing but it is really fun to use.

You can stagger anything with a well timed jump attack from a great weapon. Not only that, but with the greataxe, (not sure about the others greataxes) you can stunlock off of the rolling R1, which can deadangle to boot.