Dragon King's Cragblade | Elden Ring Wiki

Probably the longest weapon that can do the rapier's retreat slice.

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Kinda lame how the game markets it as this "all-powerful dragon slaying weapon" but by the time you get it you've already killed the strongest dragon enemy in the game, and chances are Lansseax and Fortissax as well. The rest of the dragon bosses are so weak they're either dead already too or you're so over-leveled you don't even need this thing by the time you get it.

Sick weapon art though I guess.

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I realize it's not the best thing ever and sometimes unreliable, but after the latest poise patches it seems possible to stunlock a humanoid player for the whole ash of war.

Needs more testing to find out if possible and if so, under what conditions, but seeing a phantom flinch while getting zapped and then being lightning slammed into a death animation is very satisfying.

One of the most stylish weapons in the game by far.

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If Dragon Smithing Stones are made of Placidusax's scales and are strong enough to kill a god, and this weapon is made of those same scales. Maybe this weapon is (lore-wise) the most powerful weapon in the game.

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If you backstep while charging a heavy you get a unique attack. I know curved swords do this but never knew that atleast this heavy thrusting sword can do that.

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absolutely mental looking weapon, both in the design and AoW, it's just a shame that it isn't all that practical. I feel like it really takes away from the worthiness of placi's remembrance. (you know, being revered as god-lord-king of all dragons)

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Imagine instead of this (NOT meant negatively i love this weapon) we would get a dual whip wchich would be placi's heads (sorry for my english).

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Maybe this has changed, but a reminder that weapons like Bolt Of Gransax, Dragon King's Cragblade, and similar Lightning weapons get diminishing returns after reaching 40 Dexterity, so instead of having 80 Dexterity you could put those 40 other levels into something like Faith so you can use Lightning incantations as well.

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So, I have tested the Ash of War on this weapon on 1.09.1 and the following talismans enhance the damage:
Godfrey Icon - Works
Winged Sword Insignia - Does NOT Work
Warrior Jar Shard and Shard of Alexander(obviously) - Work
Lightning Scorpion Charm - Works

Additionally, the small ticks of damage deal pure lightning damage, while the landing deals mostly lightning(Around 75%) and physical damage(Around 25%), as I was able to buff it with exalted flesh slightly, so you can buff the damage somewhat with things like Blue Dancer Charm although not by much.

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i don't even care if someone thinks this weapon is bad, I get to poke someone with the remains of an ancient dragon king, and turn into a lightning cloud.

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This thing rules. I don't care if it's "subpar" or "inconsistent." This sword operates on two things: The Rule of Cool, and the power of a badass dragon king. And brother, it's got S scaling in both.

(Note: Does not actually scale with how 'cool' your character is, as coolness is subjective. Scaling with power of dragon king is in fact B and not S.)

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a weird choice for a remembrance weapon. bolt of gransax would have felt more fitting

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I love how invaders get rocked into oblivion by this. They come charging at me all gung-ho and after a small skirmish I one shot WA them into a parallel dimension where they just woke up from a bad dream. Nailing people for well over 2000 damage - highest I noticed was 2430. Not even with scorpion charm. Damn. The ultimate sit-the-****-down. I love it as much as one shotting the guys who ride the elevator down behind me with a fully charged death lightning for over 3000 damage. So satisfying. Haha yeah you thought. Bye now.

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Im a little yeeter
Dex build, proud
Here is my cragblade, here is my cloud
When I start yeeting you best watch out
Cause I’m about to knock you down

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There isn't a single weapon in the entire game that scales with both Faith and Arcane, which really leaves Dragon Communion builds in a rough spot.

Placidusax's incant doesn't get Dragon Communion Seal buffed, and his weapon scales with neither of the Dragon loyalist skills.

The dragonlord has looked upon his subjects and found us disfavorable. It's enough to make a grown wyrm cry.

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Chidori!!!!!

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This should scale with Arcane instead of Faith or Dex. Screw ya’ll

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If you want a really fun dex/lightning build run this plus bolt of gransax and hold both in opposite hands, since both the AoW do Lightning damage you can do shard of Alexander and lightning scorpion talisman and switch to this for fast melee enemies and BoG for sniper rifle cheese it’s actually does crazy damage I have about 71 dex and 20 strength and both thundercloud and the spear can do consistently at least 1.2k (spear) and 1.8k damage (thundercloud) on anything that doesn’t have absurd lightning resistance it’s so fun

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Very much agreed with the person below... I love the AoW, but sometimes I land just beyond my target and don't do any damage. That said, when it does hit, it's damage and knock-back is fan-freaking-tastic!!

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I found out you can use the weapon skill to completely negate fall damage as long as you land during the immunity effect. Super useful for exploration and Achievement hunting.

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Anyone else feel like this weapon's AoW's final hitbox is really bad? I swear it will go right through enemies and not deal damage half the time. Cool and great damage when it hits, but feels like a 50/50 chance to hit on enemies that aren't the size of a bus

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There has been a lot of discussion on this page about how this weapon's skill, Thundercloud Form, interacts with various spells, talismans, and great runes. I have done some testing and will post both my conclusions and some raw data below. It is important to remember that these tests are far from conclusive and I would appreciate further testing and validation from others. In particular, Thundercloud Form returns inconsistent damage numbers between tests. This occurs even when the conditions appear to be unchanged between tests. If anyone can explain why this is happening, it would be of great benefit to the community.

Setup:
* Dragon King's Cragblade +0 (152 physical AR / 90 lightning AR)
* 18 STR / 75 DEX
* no other weapons, armour, talismans, or spell effects

Notes:
* Enemies in rain take increased lightning damage (10%)
* Enemies in water take increased lightning damage (10%)
* Enemies who haven't noticed you take increased damage (??%)
* Stance-broken enemies take increased damage (??%)

Testing vs the first Giant Land Squirt encountered from The Ravine site of grace:
* L2 tap = 512, 346, 400, 346, 346, 401
* L2 fully charged = 775, 527, 778, 527, 775, 894, 527, 775

Q: Does the Shard of Alexander increase the damage of Thundercloud Form?
A: Yes.

Q: Does the Godfrey Icon increase the damage of a fully-charged Thundercloud Form?
A: No

Q: Does the Lightning-Shrouding Cracked Tear increase the Damage of Thundercloud Form?
A: Yes (659, 970, 970, 851, 970, 851)

Q: Does Flame, Grant Me Strength increase the Damage of Thundercloud Form?
A: No (580, 675, 675, 775, 710)

Q: Does Thundercloud Form stack the Rotten Winged Sword Insignia, Millicent's Prosthesis, or the Thorny Cracked Tear?
A: No

After running these tests I moved to the Prayer Room site of Grace in Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree. Testing vs the nearby Cleanrot Knight resulted in the following damage numbers for a fully-charged L2: 439, 521, 435, 439, 443, 443, 443, 443, 527

Q: Does Thundercloud Form benefit from the Spear Talisman?
A: No (519, 443, 438, 435, 443, 431)

Q: Does Thundercloud Form benefit from the Lightning-Shrouding Cracked Tear?
A: Yes (476, 499, 469, 472, 479, 494, 472)

Q: Does Thundercloud Form benefit from Flame, Grant Me Strength?
A: No (478, 588, 443, 435, 443)

Q: Does Thundercloud Form stack Malenia's Great Rune?
A: Yes (each tick of damage from the lightning cloud restores about 10% of your missing health)

A few more thoughts:

I really have no idea why Thundercloud Form returns such inconsistent damage numbers. It is possible to strike anywhere between one and seven times with the thundercloud itself before materialising and slamming to the ground for the final (significantly more powerful) strike. I tried to initiate all Thundercloud Forms from point blank range and rarely had less than six ticks of damage before the final strike. The test results that I find to be the least conclusive are those around the Spear Talisman and the LSCT / FGMS. I am not sure that I managed to land the final strike during an enemy's attack animation a single time. The small ticks of damage from the Thundercloud Form were so effective at stun-locking the Cleanrot Knight that they were never able to attack during the final strike. I tested the LSCT and FGMS because I wanted to work out what percentage of Thundercloud Form was physical damage and what percentage was lightning damage. I am leaning towards the opinion that this skill deals 100% lightning damage but am not certain whether it scales with the lightning portion of the weapon's AR or the physical and lightning parts combined.

I hope this helps to answer a few of the questions that people may have about this skill. I would love it if someone else could do some more testing and post their results.

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I held off fighting plasidusax for so long so now if i want the thrusting weapon imma have to fight him ng 7

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The Dragon King's Cragblade is a Heavy Thrusting Sword, capable of high-damage, low-commitment thrusting attacks. This fact alone makes it among the most devastating weapons around when it comes to skewering other Tarnished; a quality shared by pretty much all Heavy Thrusting Swords, Halberds, and Greatspears.

On its own merit separate from others in its class however, this blade's Thundercloud Form is a powerful weapon art that can easily close distance with your foes and then deal an immense amount of damage, knocking them flat in the process. This weapon will take you far, both metaphorically and literally, but keep in mind that the period of invulnerability it grants is shorter than you might think.
— Courh the Explorer

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And the Lord imparted unto them : "Thou shalt yeet thineself onto them and lo and behold he did yeet and the Lord did grin."

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when your gf leaves her curling iron on in the bathroom.

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They really gave 2 of the 4 heavy thrusting swords the most stylish weapon arts in the game huh

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Chad Kings dragon blade.

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This + high ping = complete invincibility whilst usinf AoW?

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Powerstaning it with bloody helice has very nice results. I'm going to try it with the godskin stitcher once I get an idea what weapon art would best complement the thundercloud form on this.

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Guys, going to 80 dex with lightning scorpion equipped only neta you 124 AR more with LSC. That's only 200 dmg on the AoW with alexanders.
If you want faith after 18/40 dump into faith so you can use the spells you want. L2P, learn when diminishing returns become not worth your 40 level investment. Or just go to 200 and be over leveled. I don't judge, except I will point down if your level 200 and I kill you.

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I don't think this will be news to anyone who already has this sword but I was expecting to see it mentioned on this page. I only got the sword a couple of days ago and I needed to farm for pinion feathers west of the church of Elleh. I always kill both giant octopus on the beach every run for the ovary to make stanching boluses.
For this farm I had my shiny new Dragon king's Cragblade equipped and when I used the weapon art up close to the octopus it wasn't hitting once, it was hitting multiple times.
I've been doing it after every grace reset and it looks like it has something to do with the forward momentum of the storm-cloud. If the skill is used on a target-locked enemy the storm cloud hones in then hits them sword first at speed for a lot of damage. But there is more to this weapon art than meets the eye. It can be controlled manually without target lock and it will travel much further. But being up close to a large enemy like the giant octopus is preventing the cloud from moving forward and it think each of the hits I see is the could trying to move forward but being blocked by the octopus, it works on the trolls as well. I don't know if the rotten winged sword insignia is triggered by it because I was seeing counter intuitive results when it was equipped so someone with a better head for the math than I have is going to have to work that one out. But I can think of quite a few pain in the arse bosses this sword and ots weapon art would make a lot more straight forward.

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missed opportunity to not make the weapon art placidusax's nuke move

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The weapon art on this has some pretty insane super armor, i was able to tank multiple hits from a Crucible Knight without being knocked out of it, pretty much anything that's stupid enough to try and trade with you will get completely smoked by it, other than a giant enemy or a boss with high poise.

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the weapon art is so hard to fight if the person using it is laggy, they practically materialize on top of you

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The CragBlade gives increased runes if using a fully charged ability

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This weapon would be even better if Bury The Light started blaring from your character everytime you use the weapon art.

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Someone took "I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING!!" a bit too literally, and its awesome.

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Imagine you had to cut the tail to get this weapon. Could be a nice throwback.

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I would be cool with the two ancient dragon weapons having sec only scaling if we could at least use put faith scaling on weapons with lightning art of wars. As it stands, I either have to invest more points into dex than I otherwise would as a faith build just to be able to wield a lightning based weapon. And before you say to use a fire or holy weapon, keep in mind that you’re not going to be able to maximize lightning damage as far as talismans and phisics (I know I spelled that wrong).

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Can power stand in pair with the bolt of gransax?

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I don't know why everyone is mad that this and the gransax scales of dex, this means you can have a ton of dex weapons as back up weapons. Like shield breaking weapons for example. You don't even need a high dex for these weapons literally 50 dex will do, they hit hard and are a fair weight.

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There are two weapons, Bolt of Gransax and COOLER BOLT OF GRANSAX.

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Is this thing parry-able?

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Got this weapon, went to caelid, turned into a thunderstorm, and punched a giant bird in the face for over 3k damage. 10/10

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BURY THE LIGHT DEEP WITHIN

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I love this weapon but it's kinda funny that your character turns into a flying Thundercloud only because they are good at using lighter weapons

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I've heard the ash does multiple hits during the startup. does anyone know if the final big hit is boosted by winged sword insignia variants?

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You can’t call it a special R2 when 2/4 heavy thrusting swords use it.

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If you use glintblade phalanx it works with the weapon art looks cool seeing the swords in the cloud. Don't pvp but if you do this let me know how it is for that.

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I’m trying to intuit what aspect of lightning indicates that it would scale off dex. I’m genuinely curious as to why there is an association between that stat and affinity. I get the thrusting sword aspect being dexterity based but it just doesn’t click for me. The “lighting = quick and fast like dexterity” logic just seems dumb to me.

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STORMING THE WORLD!!!

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"Lightning should scale off faith because it always did in past games!" You know what, no, let the "physical" stats have elemental damage as well. Fire and lightning scalings are cool, and they should stay the way they are.

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Its annoying that people only really use it for the Ash, the Heavy Thrusting Swords as a whole are quite possibly the best weapon class theyve added tot he game, heavily versitile in combat, and this thing has some VERY strong stagger on its heavy charge.

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This and gransax should scale off of faith.

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Should have been a greatsword change my mind

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Gets you out of being bodyblock cornered up on a wall, the WA has pretty much infinite poise and enough stagger to stunlock anything smaller than a crucible knight.
It'll also send enemies flying with the final hit (and even stagger crucible knights, so you can dish out even more damage after a riposte at the cost of taking a hit unless they stomp the ground), giving you plenty of time to escape/reposition

Just wish it had a bit more tracking. Not enough to make BHS a must to counter in PvP but at least enough to never zoom past the actual target...

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More like Dragon King's Chadblade, time to play roar of the spark and just ride the lightning!

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This or Gransax Spear?

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If you went into Elden Ring, saw all these dragons and went "****, these guys are cool and all, but how can I channel Grand King Ghidorah to decimate my foes", this here's your boy.

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Bolt of Gransax, except instead of throwing the spear, you turn yourself into the spear and throw yourself

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No faith, again?

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My favourite pvp weapon hands down. The weapon art is something to be used sparingly, its moveset is good enough to where you don't often even need it, I use it with an offhanded rapier and its super fun. The running r2 is obviously super strong, and it can often put you to the side or even behind an opponent leaving them vulnerable, and if they're behind they can often try to attack and straight up miss. My only gripe is the actual r1s aren't amazing, but they can throw off enemies, especially that swipe on the 4th attack. I generally use it to throw off opponents by mixing them with rapier L1s. The actual weapon art is tricky to use consistently but it's rewarding as all hell to land. Its sheer damage means that as long as you land it and don't die you have basically won the trade. It seems like an average of 1100 damage, so as long as you've hit them at any point during the duel it should leave them practically 1 tap range. Speaking of which the actual hitbox on the cloud can be used to pick, no boring fan dagger pick necessary, just turn into a cloud and anyone not experienced with this weapon won't expect it to take out the last of their health. Another thing to note is you should absolutely recognise when the art is and isn't going to hit, as you can aim it away to retreat in cloud form. This allows you to get some stamina back to dodge your opponent punishing.
Overall my favourite weapon to duel with, not the best but the most fun.

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I find your lack of faith… disturbing…

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This+Gransax = Strongest incan build with 0 faith

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Why is the dex requirement on a heavy weapon so freaking high??

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Ooooh... If I ever finish the game, and then eventually replay it, this will definitely be used to make The Knight / Little Ghost from Hollow Knight

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I like this weapon and I like what they did with the weapon arts damage...

But the weapon is pretty rough. It's a slightly odd hitbox and can miss a target even when you land right on them.

My major problem with it is that it gets you hit by basically everything. I've tried it on a number of bosses and unless you're surprise attacking them from behind you get absolutely leveled and punished evrrytime you use it.

I actually think this weapon art shouldn't stop and claw the target. The character should do the slash while still teleporting. So your character would phase through its target if done right. Youd end up basically behind them

Otherwise this thing gets you walloped.

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EMBRACE THE LIGHTNING!!!

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I just tried this weapon as of patch 1.04 and dear Marika, it's unreal. With lightning buffs, I'm dealing 3.5k with its weapon art and staggers things like crazy. But it's not just the immense damage of the weapon that makes it so strong. You're essentially invulnerable during the cloud animation and track down enemies from massive range. You're extremely hard to hit and even if you manage to be hit, you have damn near infinite poise. You just reappear crashing down for huge damage and stance break that almost guarantees a critical hit. It's also LIGHTNING, which is incredibly useful for most fights as a lot of combat take place in the rain or in shallow water, giving it a further 20% increase in damage. Sleeper OP weapon for sure.

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Does anyone know if the weapon art counts as thrust damage for counter attacks since it's a thrusting sword? The WA allows you to poise through most things. If you were to use the Spear Talisman and hit them while they're in mid attack, I could see it doing immense damage.

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The regular R1 and R2 are disappointing, but the L2 more than makes up for it. I fought Maliketh multiple times with this weapon and landing that WA never got old. You literally turn into a storm and fly through the air. I think they buffed this thing and improved the tracking. At times it felt like i turned into a cruise missile, did a whole 180 in the air with solid 1400+ dmg with lighting dmg flask boost and Alexander's Shard.

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The regular R1 and R2 are disappointing, but the L2 more than makes up for it. I fought Maliketh multiple times with this weapon and landing that WA never got old. You literally turn into a storm and fly through the air. I think they buffed this thing and improved the tracking. At times it felt like i turned into a cruise missile, did a whole 180 in the air with solid 1400+ dmg with lighting dmg flask boost and Alexander's Shard.

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"This weapon has a unique R2 shared with Bloody Helice" honestly its not so "unique" when 2/4 of the heavy thrusting sword roster has it now does it?

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The Thundercloud Form is one of the coolest skill in the game. Love this weapon.

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This does not get any affects from godfrey icon

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With the damage difference between charged and uncharged now, is this weapon’s AoW affected by Godfrey’s Talisman post-1.04?

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With the damage difference between charged and uncharged now, is this weapon’s AoW affected by Godfrey’s Talisman post-1.04?

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With the damage difference between charged and uncharged now, is this weapon’s AoW affected by Godfrey’s Talisman post-1.04?

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Literally only gripe I have with this thing is that the heavy attack is not the same as the great epee, I'm of the opinion that every weapon needs 1 attack type as a poke or downward slash, and the other needs to be a swipe to be able to cover a bit of an area.

Regardless of that, this thing is easily my favorite weapon out of literally thr entire series. It's a toolbox of a weapon and it not having faith or int scaling actually works in my favor since I can use it with almost all my builds. It does work best with a full lightning build though.

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This is an excellent weapon. That is all.

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All fun and games till it slides you off a cliff :)

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Really awesome and stylish weapon with a solid base moveset, but for the love of God I can't manage to hit anything with the weapon art. The thing requires incredibly precise spacing thanks to the fact that the hit box is only in front of you, which is a huge problem because the art itself will usually carry you past your opponent. Works great when it lands, just wish it was more consistent.

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Does Godfrey icon work with the skill?

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They made this thing way to fast on it's WA it needs a nerf ngl.

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This weapon absolutely destroys Malenia's first phase due to posture damage of the held version. Break her posture once, critical hit, then use the WA into a charged R2 while she is down from it to break her posture again, and just loop it.

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1.04 has made this weapon A+ tier. Slap a lightning scorpion on and you can one shot with a well-timed charged L1, but an uncharged L1 is now much faster, does a huge chunk, and is much easier to hit. Great rivers of blood and great shield counter

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so, where is this "Unique" heavy attack it mentions? ive done both the standard and the charged, running, backstep, rolling, all of that, and nothing is different.

HOWEVER!!!! i keep accidentally doing a strange move identical to the "Kick" attack of rapiers from previous fromsoft games where you tap Forward+Light at the same time, but no matter what i do, i cant replicate what ive done, anyone know whats going on? because ive done it four times now, and no combination of any move i do is providing results.

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I managed to kill a host and a phantom spamming me melee at the lift (while it was operating) in Castle Sol using the weapon art and it was probably the best feeling I had playing the game for ~220 hrs lmao. My only wish is for more hyperarmor in the weapon art and a HIGHER jump elevation. I mean you’re supposed to be a cloud right

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FP Cost 28! Yayyyyy

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Judging by how often I see this in pvp duels it's near meta status. In general great thrusting swords may have been the best weapons - quick, long, ridiculous running R2. If somebody wants to make their fights much much easier but isnt cheap enough to go for bleed then there's your solution.

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it was an interesting weapon, but the one thing i wanted it for, fromsoft denied me. you can't use the "flying" part of the attack to make jumps. you fall immediately.

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My no.1 pick

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Weapon art is a bit underwhelming compared to the real deal, but is fun and usable

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Not sure if this has been mentioned, but I think the WA ‘Thundercloud Form’ might be a reference to Pacific Rim.

Crimson Typhoon, a ‘storm themed’ Jaeger, uses a special three-armed technique called ‘Thundercloud Formation’. This weapon drops from a three-headed dragon that also happens to be ‘storm themed’.

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i hate this thing's weapon art lol, so janky and useless takes absolutely forever to cast and legitimately 80-95% of casts you just fly right past/through the mob or land in front of it doing absolutely nothing, and when it DOES hit it's the same amount or less than most other WAs

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maybe dumb question but it's better for quality or dex build?

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Anyone know how to work this weapon into a dex/faith build? Seems to only realistically work with pure dex...

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Accidentally sold mine. Can’t use the remembrance again. Can someone drop one for me?

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For Dex builds this is better than the Bolt of Gransax due to it's better scaling. At the cost of a bit of reach, it's lighter, faster and does more damage.

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