This will be old news to many I know but it's news to me and might be news to some newer players to the game.
I knew all about the Northern Regalia sword and the dedicated build etc. but never thought much about the Demonbrandt or even took a swing with it until recently.
I started a new co-op playthrough with another forum member. I killed Doran (yes, cheesy backstab method lol) asap for his ring and armour. Literally a day or two later I realised that I had gotten PWCT very quickly and very early on from co-oping and getting lucky once or twice against a kind invader who offered to make our playthrough more authentic.
Anyway I started as a Temple Knight so I satisfied the Faith requirement for the Demonbrandt right off the bat. You're gonna two hand the sword so the chances are you can also do that right off the bat or at least get there with a couple of point investments in Strength. But here's the thing - even without meeting the DEX stat requirement this sword is by far the strongest weapon available this early in the game.
The penalty only affects the physical damage so the magic damage was still all there and maxed out due to my CT. It was doing 240+ per swing. This is at SL20 and could have been even earlier if I gone to kill Doran earlier (although it's very tedious killing him with weak weapons).
I then put a few points into DEX to see how strong it actually gets and it's ludicrous for a weapon 'available' so early on. I killed the Tower Knight in 2 swings (after he fell down) and I backstabbed a miner in Stonefang for 1200.
I've actually stopped using it as it's not really 'fun' and I'm going with a Strength build anyway.
Sorry to go on a bit but my point is without Flamelurker's soul, without farming for upgrades and with fairly minimal stat investment you can get an end-game strength weapon if you get PWCT. And even before you satisfy the stat requirements it might well be better than any other weapon (that I am aware of) this early on provided you can get PWCT.
I knew all about the Northern Regalia sword and the dedicated build etc. but never thought much about the Demonbrandt or even took a swing with it until recently.
I started a new co-op playthrough with another forum member. I killed Doran (yes, cheesy backstab method lol) asap for his ring and armour. Literally a day or two later I realised that I had gotten PWCT very quickly and very early on from co-oping and getting lucky once or twice against a kind invader who offered to make our playthrough more authentic.
Anyway I started as a Temple Knight so I satisfied the Faith requirement for the Demonbrandt right off the bat. You're gonna two hand the sword so the chances are you can also do that right off the bat or at least get there with a couple of point investments in Strength. But here's the thing - even without meeting the DEX stat requirement this sword is by far the strongest weapon available this early in the game.
The penalty only affects the physical damage so the magic damage was still all there and maxed out due to my CT. It was doing 240+ per swing. This is at SL20 and could have been even earlier if I gone to kill Doran earlier (although it's very tedious killing him with weak weapons).
I then put a few points into DEX to see how strong it actually gets and it's ludicrous for a weapon 'available' so early on. I killed the Tower Knight in 2 swings (after he fell down) and I backstabbed a miner in Stonefang for 1200.
I've actually stopped using it as it's not really 'fun' and I'm going with a Strength build anyway.
Sorry to go on a bit but my point is without Flamelurker's soul, without farming for upgrades and with fairly minimal stat investment you can get an end-game strength weapon if you get PWCT. And even before you satisfy the stat requirements it might well be better than any other weapon (that I am aware of) this early on provided you can get PWCT.