Our friend the Uchi.

So on my current character I'm using a +15 Uchigatana with 40 dexterity.

I know that dex weapons are in general faster/weaker than str weapons, but I'm honestly really annoyed by the performance of this thing over the last couple days. Even with the hornet ring on it averages about 800 damage on a backstab.

Now when my faith get's just a little higher I'll be able to use my buffs and that should help immensely, but for now can anyone explain why the damage is so low?

Well because it's a Dex weapon. They aren't meant to do large damage in one swing.

Aye, dex weapons are all about hitting multiple times in a matter of seconds. Just as well, the uchi has bleed for further incentive to get in as many hits as possible.

Hornet Ring BS+40 DEX+uchi +15 is only giving 800 points of damage? That doesn't sound right. I haven't PvP'ed with one of my katana-user toons in a little while so I don't profess to remember 100%, but I recall scoring ~950 per Hornet BS.

Just a little while ago my Velka's hit for some 1,200 damage with the Hornet Ring on a backstab.

Yeah, I might have not been specific enough. It's really not the regular attacks that I'm having a problem with. It's specifically those backstabs.

Maybe I got unlucky and fought people who had really high defense somehow, but a couple people I fought yesterday and about 5 more I fought today all gave the same results. Between 800 and 850 damage with all that same equipment and stats each time.

Maybe it's the Dark Souls gods way of saying "stop going for backstabs," lol.

Yeah, in that case you don't wanna use the uchi. I'd say go for a Rapier for backstabbing.

Otherwise, look into something with more power that scales with dex. I always liked the scythe's moveset myself (not great scythe)

I was getting around the same with my Uchi, around 800-850 with hornet ring. Cloud is right, the incentive is for bleed so BSing with a katana is not the style to go for. No extra points for crits, and it has +300 for bleed. Nice fast-ish weapon meant to back someone into a corner and commence blood letting, or dart in and out. Slice roll back, repeat. You'll notice when their res bar nears the top

NordNorth wrote:I was getting around the same with my Uchi, around 800-850 with hornet ring. Cloud is right, the incentive is for bleed so BSing with a katana is not the style to go for. No extra points for crits, and it has +300 for bleed. Nice fast-ish weapon meant to back someone into a corner and commence blood letting, or dart in and out. Slice roll back, repeat. You'll notice when their res bar nears the top

Tbh, I never thought the bleed was a big deal in PVP. Everyone I fight either kills me before I can make them bleed or I kill them before they bleed.

Bleed is more psychological than you'd think. I've said this more times than I can recount, but there's a human element to PVP that alot of people forget.

Bleed weapons, poison throwing knives, Gravelord sword's toxin, dung pies, and various mist pyros. All of these are great for controlling/herding another person into your pace.

cloudyeki wrote:Bleed is more psychological than you'd think. I've said this more times than I can recount, but there's a human element to PVP that alot of people forget.

Bleed weapons, poison throwing knives, Gravelord sword's toxin, dung pies, and various mist pyros. All of these are great for controlling/herding another person into your pace.

Y E S

NordNorth wrote:

cloudyeki wrote:Bleed is more psychological than you'd think. I've said this more times than I can recount, but there's a human element to PVP that alot of people forget.

Bleed weapons, poison throwing knives, Gravelord sword's toxin, dung pies, and various mist pyros. All of these are great for controlling/herding another person into your pace.

Y E S

W H Y ?

care to tell me which part you approve?

get a chaos blade if you want high damage from a dex weapon

Plus one for pointing out often overlooked and very important things about bleed and poison mind games are fun because combined with the games mechanics becomes incredibly complex

Tattered Cloth hood + Tattered Cloth chest + G. halberd = a LOT of resistance. It's so fun to throw dung pies. It actually can do quite a bit of damage if you get them at the start of a fight. keep them pressured, get then toxic, then attack then before they can heal and you usually won't have to attack twice. You'd be surprised how freaked people get over bleed and poison.

Well guys, I took what you all said into consideration. Now I've started consciously not going for backstabs when I can manage it. I also stocked up on rotten pine resin, so I might just be a turtle's worst nightmare with both poison and bleed on the same weapon.

In fact two of the people I invaded today were turtle's. For the first one I slapped my rotten resin on my katana and just kept hitting his shield. He was using a greataxe of some kind and didn't seem to notice that every time he missed an attack I was able to come in, slice him once, and then back out before he could retaliate. He ran away and tried to heal and then I rushed up and hit him 4 times, killing him. The other one was using a black knight halberd and Havel's shield. He kept backpeddling and I kept hitting him, until he eventually backpeddled off a cliff. :/

In both cases I'm not sure if the bleed or the poison took effect first. Or if only one took effect perhaps.

I don't think either go through havel's shield. Or was that the artorias shield?

either way, what really scares people is their res bar popping up. I say try out the PGS with rotten pine and watch as they freak out as you bleed and poison them with amazing r2 combos

billy_bayonet wrote:get a chaos blade if you want high damage from a dex weapon

billy, wow. I agree it's pretty powerful, but not that amazing really. It's just for the cool kids really

cloudyeki wrote:I don't think either go through havel's shield. Or was that the artorias shield?

either way, what really scares people is their res bar popping up. I say try out the PGS with rotten pine and watch as they freak out as you bleed and poison them with amazing r2 combos

Uhm, the spider shield is the only one that blocks poison I'm pretty sure and I don't think any shield can block bleed damage.

And the Havel user was definitely taking DOT from one of the two at some point because his HP bar was steadily going down.

Nope, greatshield of artorias blocks it all, (not including effects like mist or the bog because they dont really come in through the shield) but everything you can block, if blocked will not give you status effects.

dancash1808 wrote:Nope, greatshield of artorias blocks it all, (not including effects like mist or the bog because they dont really come in through the shield) but everything you can block, if blocked will not give you status effects.

Oh, OK. I never tried that shield or heard of that effect before. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Not at all yeah its a pretty nice shield even if it does not have quite the same absorption as havels...

BSing is fine if you get the chance. Heck, I'll "fish" in the middle of a fight because I show now sign of it, so they'll keep my face to face until, BAM, roll, strafe, roll, backstab. But fire tempest works just as well *shrug* Anyway, bses are fine, but I say duel in the burg. You'll find people who are experts at suddenly backstabbing and almost all of them are experts at not getting backstabbed. Really big challenge.

JoeBroski09 wrote:BSing is fine if you get the chance. Heck, I'll "fish" in the middle of a fight because I show now sign of it, so they'll keep my face to face until, BAM, roll, strafe, roll, backstab. But fire tempest works just as well *shrug* Anyway, bses are fine, but I say duel in the burg. You'll find people who are experts at suddenly backstabbing and almost all of them are experts at not getting backstabbed. Really big challenge.

I was intentionally not backstabbing because I wanted to get use to just fighting more normally. I got to a point where I was so use to fighting backstab fishers that I ended up having to do it myself just to counter. Now I'm trying to adapt to a hit and run type of fighting.

Ecko wrote:

JoeBroski09 wrote:BSing is fine if you get the chance. Heck, I'll "fish" in the middle of a fight because I show now sign of it, so they'll keep my face to face until, BAM, roll, strafe, roll, backstab. But fire tempest works just as well *shrug* Anyway, bses are fine, but I say duel in the burg. You'll find people who are experts at suddenly backstabbing and almost all of them are experts at not getting backstabbed. Really big challenge.

I was intentionally not backstabbing because I wanted to get use to just fighting more normally. I got to a point where I was so use to fighting backstab fishers that I ended up having to do it myself just to counter. Now I'm trying to adapt to a hit and run type of fighting.

Ahh. yeah. Set the pace, and only attack when you decide. Never have to defend because you decide to attack fast enough that they're always on their heals. I try to do this, but everyone has different playing styles, and some of them try to set their own pace. Two players trying to set their own pace on the fight is just going to be a game of luck. There's a bunch of fighting types that "counters" the people who are agressive and try to set the pace. Mainly 3. Turtlers, the good ones, waiters, those who just run from your pace, thus setting their own pace to the fight. They don't "run" but they never let you do what you want to do, thus messing you up, and forcing you to go to their pace. Long fights... and counterers, the guys who take your pace, then swing it back at you leaving you like this :shock:

I'm a reactive aggressive type. I try to be aggressive initially, but if things go south, I adapt. I try to analyze the way I fight so I can change it. I usually don't think at all during a fight, but then I think over it after while my invades fail haha! Stupid internet.

^Yeah, that pretty much how I'm trying to fight now. Put them under as much constant pressure as possible and if they attack I just block for the fast weapons and backroll for the heavier ones.

The problem, ironically, is that my most dangrous enemy in a one on one fight is other players just like myself. The ones that run up and keep hitting you and trying to keep you under pressure.

And i'm really bad with taking pressure in this game, lol.

EDIT NOTE: I accidentally said I blocked the heavy weapons and dodged the light ones. Had that backwards.