Uchigatana - upgrade pros & cons?

Hey everyone! I am on my very first playthrough of Dark Souls, and I am loving the game so far and the great community that has built up around it.

I could use some advice, from those more knowledgeable than myself, regarding upgrades for my dearly beloved Uchigatana +10. I'm using a Dex-based melee build with strong Int magic support (see stats below). I was originally going to upgrade to either Lightning or Flame, but then I noticed that those upgrades would stop scaling with Dex. Since I'm only going to continue pouring points into Dex, at least until around 35-40, I'm now wondering if it would be smarter to upgrade to Normal +15 and keep the Dex scaling.

So I guess my ultimate question is, will Dex scaling eventually outweigh the extra damage I would get from Lighting or Flame?

Thanks! Appreciate your help.

Oops, forgot stats. (I'm doing this from memory, so may not be 100% correct. )

Level 45
Vit 21
Att 12
End 21
Str 14
Dex 21
Res 12
Int 17
Fth 8

Yes, dex based scaling on the uchi will out damage elemental. Elemental weapons also do split damage. Meaning, you have to bypass physical resistance and elemental resistance once you land a blow. A +15 uchi has pure physical damage, meaning you only have to bypass one type of resistance.

Elemental weapons are nice for low - mid level builds that can't afford 40 levels in scaling stats.
They are also used by vit / end gouged high level builds but it's really not that common anymore.

Below is a link to the dark souls character planner. It's very nice tool for planning / showcasing builds.
http://mugenmonkey.com/darksouls/

Welcome to the forum!

You can always upgrade to lightning and when your dex stat gets high enough, modify it back to +10 and make it +15 from there.

DigitaLinsanitY wrote:Below is a link to the dark souls character planner. It's very nice tool for planning / showcasing builds.

Holy crap, this tool is awesome. I'm gonna have a lot of fun playing with this!

Question: What level do you usually end up at by the end of your first playthrough?

AnCapaillMor wrote:You can always upgrade to lightning and when your dex stat gets high enough, modify it back to +10 and make it +15 from there.

Oh snap, I can downgrade? Somehow I was not aware of that...

I keep forgetting, I also have the Iaito rattling around in my back pocket. Maybe I'll make that Lightning and keep the Uchi on normal...

It depends how thorough you are, how much coop or pvp you're doing, how much you're investing into spells or pyro glove, and weather you're completing dlc content.

Without additional soul farming, I'd say SL70 - 80 sounds about right.