I Have a Question for the PvP Community

After many hours of PvP - duels, random invasions, tournies, fight clubs - what have you, something has urked me more and more as time went on. My favorite type of weapon, the katana, is frowned upon as most people know. Now I know this is the case for many good reasons,  and we don't need to go into detail with them in this thread.

But I still love using a katana, and when I happen to pull one out, which is pretty rare nowadays, is only when I'm facing another katana user or a spear user (again, we don't need to go into detail on that subject). 

Another thing I'd like to bring up before I deliver my question is I do not use shields. I prefer to see a bare offhand or another weapon because I do not like the way shields look. I have done this since I started to PvP, but I turned it into an excuse to use a katana more often. It however still makes me feel like I'm missing something that I will bring up shortly.

Finally, I started to lower my poise. Starting from before the DWGR nerf, I think I had 77 poise, I then lowered to something around the 53 breakpoint, and now I alternate between 21 and 36. Again, lowering my poise made me feel a little better about using a katana, but it seems like people still do not like it.

And now, for the question. Would you think the use of a katana in PvP be "fair" or "justified" if the user had both no shield and no poise?

The reason I ask this is because I know some people are quicker to write someone off as a noob, cookie cutter builder, anything to make them feel better about the loss. And I know it really shouldn'tmmatter what other people think of me, but I likeknowing that others respect me in the PvP community. I reveive "GG" messages when dual-wielding the broadsword and Falchion for example much more often than when wielding the Chaos Blade. I'd really like to replicate those GG messages or at least know I receive the same amount of recognition while using a katana, no matter how much I need to gimp myself.

Thanks to anyone who reads the whole rant. 

Edit: To whom it may concern, I do not use Pyromancy, magic, or the DWGR.

The stigma comes from the extreme overuse of it as a weapon by anyone from R1 spammers who are new to PvP, and the hordes of people on Twitch who seldom use anything else.
Katanas are safe, easy, effective, have bleed, and the Chaos Blade takes away one of their only disadvantages over some of the bigger weapons; the straight sword level damage. 
They are by far one of the most boring, frustrating, and difficult weapons to fight against for a majority of the playerbase, so many positives, and few legitimate negatives.
Adding the Darkwood Grain Ring to a katana build is just silly, because if anything IS overpowered in Dark Souls, it's that ring. Couple a Chaos Blade, the DWGR, and stamina regen buffs, and you have yourself frustration incarnate.

Personally, I'm used to fighting this sort of thing, so the most I'll ever be is slightly annoyed. But as for your question, yes; I'd say that not exploiting every single advantage katanas offer does make them much less... obnoxious. 
Though I wouldn't be expecting those GG messages to come back, regardless of your gimp.

Reinforcing a point I made in the OP,  I know all of the reasons for the katana hate/salt. And I do believe most of it is justified. Addressing those points aren't necessary in your posts, unless you feel you need to bring them up tobetter explain your answer.

And thank you for the responses. I'm interested in seeing more views on the subject.

There is a trend in most multi-player video games in which players tends to shun the noob-friendlier builds and tactics. It is actually pretty comparable to hipsters who do not enjoy mainstream interests and deem their own tastes so much more superior that they start considering themselves superior as a human being. This behavior is then amplified by the amount of circle jerking in different forums and communities where people can discuss how bad these katana R1 spammers are whilst masturbating over screenshots of their +5 Raw Notched Whip/ lightening Cestus Solaire Cosplay.

Personally I enjoy a large variety of weapons including the katana, but would never complain about the strength of weapon because in Dark Souls there is always parry, block, roll and other techniques that allow you to trivialize most weapons.

In my opinion every weapon in the game is fair game, it just gets annoying when people just spam r1 over and over again, and unfortunately alot of katanna users do this

I say pull out the mm and if they buck, pop em in the mouth. Just kidding.
Trident all the way!

Use whatever weapon you want. Don't let other people's hate affect you. People just don't like to get beat.

Personally, I hate fighting kats. But, that is because good kat users destroy me.

Also, IMO, the only thing that is OP is the player (and not weapons, shields, armor, or rings).

Use them at "At Risk" status or weakly/not upgraded.

That might stop people from crying OP and try-hard. Then again, it might not.

LOL, it probably won't. I see more insults from ignorant people than those who have enough experience recognize a handicapped kat.

And, who cares if people call you try-hard or OP? That is, unless they have a valid point, which many people do not.

Haha, when I use a katana I nerf myself too for some reason (I strip naked and replace my other ring with Orange Charred ring...FLAME KICKS!).

My main problem with the katanas is just that they have become reeeeally boring weapons. Almost every single person I run to who has a katana use them in totally same way, with the same boring tactics and boring builds (Dex/pyro with katana anyone?).
At this very moment I can only name one katana user from the top of my head I don't find boring to fight against, since he has developed his unique fighting style.

It's not "what" it's "how"...kinda applies to all of the weapons I guess ~

Use what you want, it's the same in every game, i've been playing multiplayer a long time and remember being called a noob Kar98 user in DOD back in the day, i even vaguely remember someone giving out to me as wee lad about spamming hadokens too much in SF2. Said it before and i'll say it again, it's a known fact that 80% of people online do not lose games fairly, it's either lag, hacks or glitched weapons that beat him. You're going to get heat\salt regardless of what you use sp screw what they think.

Agree with juutas though, fighting the average katana user is like fighting a great scythe user, the fights will mainly consist of running L1's with the odd R2 added into it.

A question to the OP, what katana do you use most of the time and which one is your favorite?

TooLeet wrote:

AnCapaillMor wrote:Agree with juutas though, fighting the average katana user is like fighting a great scythe user, the fights will mainly consist of running L1's with the odd R2 added into it.

Running L1s?  

Umm i dropped my Ps3 controller and put the buttons back in wrong.

TooLeet wrote:Iaito>

Currently, yes.

The Letter X wrote:

TooLeet wrote:Iaito>

Currently, yes.

Personally, I have no problem with katanas, unless the user is buffing them with SLB or DMB so that they take half of my HP each hit, thats kinda annoying.

The only katana that I do not like is the Chaos Blade because in my opinion the way it is designed makes only its R1 attacks effective . Its R2 attacks are so slow, hard to use effectively and easy to punish that apart from R1 attacks I see very little use for it.

Every weapon is legitimate. Every playstyle is legitimate.

I have issues with poise backstabs, but I still consider those legitimate.

Only issue I have is hacking. Do you hack? No? Than you are completely fine.
To the OP: people who call you a noob or whatever just can't deal with losing. 
They are the noobs.

To clarify, I couldn't care less about being called a noob or anything else. I'm glad to hear that most of you don't care about seeing a katana anyway, but I want to know if someone who still hates seeing a katana would at least acknowledge everything I restrict myself from while using a katana.

I don't understand all the hate on katana R1 spam. Actually let me rephrase that, I understand it, I just don't agree. If you can get beat by something as simple as soneone spamming the R1 button, you more than likely have no reason to complain other than because you're losing. For anyone here who knows me, you know that I love me some R1 regardless of what weapon im using (unless I'm spamming R2's on an Mlgs of course.) that being said back to more relevant post.
Like has been said multiple times in the thread, do what you like, if its fun for you then who cares about what everyone else thinks? That might not be very good way to think about life XD but hey this is a video game meant for your enjoyment, use it that way!

Why would I hate seeing katanas? I see them all the time, a katana, to me, just says, "Get ready for some Dark Souls PvP" nothing more, nothing less.