Frozen Needle | Elden Ring Wiki

this is basically like a medium range crossbow with actually usable stance damage (but only cold projectiles)

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also known as cold reiterpallasch

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Step 1) use this a fire infused hoslow's whip in offhand. Step 2) profit.

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Parry the R2

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Frozen needle is amazing if used right. No question about it. Free Estus punish, stagger out of cast, and a roll catch. The feint counts as a back-step for a follow up light attack or power stance attack.
My favourite way to use this weapon is in PvP. Light roll with this, buckler, and misericord. You can harass and bait people into a parry easily lol.

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If the Ash of War also shoot a projectile like fully charged r2 and let the weapon buffed allowing it's r1 to shoot projectile with less range and power than r2, remove it's non-charged r2 projectile, it will be a better armament that works as off hand, or just give it A scaling in Dex so it works on PvE, comeon fromsoft what is this weapon?

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Can anyone confirm if the R2 projectile is effected by the Spear Talisman?

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Frozen Needle is the definition of FUN for me.

I used to run a build with the health regeneration talisman and shield, both in PvE and PvP, and it worked great.

Poke weapon where patience is key.

Shield up, needles out: DO use the heavy attack with backstep and you'll have A LOT of fun, especially in pvp, asides from the magic users that spam gatling-speed pebbles and spells.

You'll feel like a turret in a tower defense and you'll LOVE IT.

I coupled it with various weapons: the Pyke and the Yurumi (and that other bloody red whip in second shield slot).

Hooking gameplay, ngl

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paired with the good ol poison mist blood antspur rapier this is the ultimate status build

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My honest reaction to someone armed with pike, thinking it has the longest range of any melee weapon

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Ice Rapier but belongs to the trash bin

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Interesting weapon, it's main utility in pvp is that it lets you poke enemies with ranged attacks.

In spite of its magical appearance, it's all physical damage. Why? Who tf knows. If it had a useful AoW like Chilling Mist this weapon would be far better, but the lack of damage and int scaling makes it piss poor at both damaging and freezing enemies.

The only way to make this weapon 'good' is to either go dual stabbies and be a metalord, or pack something like an offhand pulley crossbow to catch people off-guard.

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Objectively the coolest thrusting sword

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Im gonna respect to dex, use this in main hand and crossbow with fire bolts in offhand, and invade people with 99 of every throwing dagger / dart. No mage will be able to out-projectile me.

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Just now learned this thing existed... and I really thought I had already seen all this game has to offer... Well that’s just how humongus this game is. Nearly two years in and i’m still finding new content.

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There's a pretty huge mistake. In the upgrades section there's mentioned you can buff it with magic but thats not the case. This weapon cannot be buffed.

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I tested a bunch of talismans on this thing to see if they'd have any effect on the R2 bullet. Sad to say that none of them did anything :(

Talismans tested:
- Axe Talisman
- Spear Talisman
- Arrow's Reach Talisman
- Arrow's Sting Talisman
- Godfrey Icon

As someone else mentioned below, the bullet does physical damage, so Blue Dancer Charm /will/ work on it, but that obviously comes at a substantial cost.

As a bonus fact, the Tree Sentinel by Church of Elleh will try to spell parry the bullet, but when the bullet hits his shield it won't be reflected. I guess that's another confirmation that it is /not/ magic XD

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So, I decided to make a build revolving around this and 2 other underrated ice-based weapons. I've gone through most of the game with this build in PvE and gone through many duels, with various mixups of the loadout, but still using the 3 ice weapons with a surprising amount of success.

The Frozen Needle has nearly unequalled utility and range for the price of mediocre damage. It makes up for this low-ish damage by being able to proc frostbite (a stat that lowers all enemy defences by 20%), speed and being effective at close to medium-long range. The AoW it's stuck with is actually perfect, as it provides much needed poise damage to a weapon that may as well be as impactful as hurling spitballs at enemies and also a method of piercing shields. It also encourages a very unique style of play utilising the feint attacks followed by an R1, which triggers the backstep attack. This backstep attack on the rapiers is a running lunge, and closes a lot of ground very quickly, allowing you to go in and out of melee range very quickly and providing a satisfying flow to the combat in both PvE and PvP.

The weapon's only shortcoming (from my observations) is the absolute lack of poise damage. A fully charged R2 projectile might flinch a sprinting heavily armoured player in PvE, but only if they are sprinting in a straight line towards you, as the projectile is easily strafed. In PvE, this thing will never poise or stance break an enemy unless it's basic trash mobs. Oh, and in PvP, the R2 will almost always go over your opponent's head or shoulder when used at point-blank range. But this is where the other 2 weapons come in.

I paired the FN (Frozen Needle) in my right hand with the IRH (Ice Rind Hatchet) in my left and the Zamor Curved Sword as my secondary right-handed weapon. The Icerind Hatchet deals very good damage for its speed and has good poise damage, stunlocking human PvE enemies and consistently flinching human opponents in PvP. It also ads a nice horizontal combo to help offset the very limited horizontal range of the Needle and is very fast, allowing for R1-L1-L1-R1 combos with the Needle that will constantly flinch and win out on speed in PvP trades (I was even able to take out a dual wielding Lance user wearing heavy armour with this method, as the hyper aggression made him unable to pull off his crouching attacks). Using the Zamor CS as a secondary main handed weapon, I had a poise-breaking powerhouse for PvE and a might AoW for trading in PvP. Switching to the Zamor mid-sprint in PvP and immediately using the AoW surprisingly led to more than a few people eating the whole Zamor Ice Storm, which I could then follow up with the dancing R1-R2-R1-R1 combo to cover ground, or switch back to the Needle to take advantage of the newly created distance between myself and my opponent. I tried out the Dragonscale Blade due to it also having frostbite on it's buffed state, but it was honestly very disappointing in both PvE and PvP, essentially only being good as an R1 spam tool during its buff.

Overall the ice weapons are a subset of really underused and underappreciated weapons that compliment each other nicely (except the Dragonscale Blade... that can go sit in a corner and feel ashamed of itself). The big benefit they offer is allowing a dex build to inflict high frostbite without having to sacrifice damage or use buffs. They look cool, feel good to use and surprised me with their viability. I encourage anyone who mains a dex build to try them out sometime.

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The feint attacks turn this weapon from a good pick to an amazing one for pve, paired with a shield and Barricade Shield aow trivializes boss fights and makes you feel like a cool icy swordsman

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My true mentor...
My guiding minty toothpick.

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I would have mained this if only I went pure dex

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Dear Son,

I know that you have long desired the great blade capable of transient moonlight itself. I have procured it for you after saving for many a year. Come receive your lovely gift at our homestead.

Love,
Mother.

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I cAnt beLiEve daRk sOuls 2 CoPieD tHis frOm Elden rinG!

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Reiterpallasch, ny beloved

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After using this for a while in PvP (duels) I can say this weapons is... bad, but not awful. One change that would improve it greatly is ~80 frostbite. Every other naturally frostbite weapon also has a unique AoW. Since this doesn't, a little more frostbite damage wouldn't be too much IMO. It's frustrating hitting people 7-8 times and not proccing...

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Frozen Needle:
Short, low damage, pathetic projectile attack, no unique ash, can't be buffed or infused. (Trash Tier Weapon).

DS2 Ice Rapier:
Long (wow), great damage, sweet ice projectile attack (actually does damage), you can change the element/scaling and buff it (better variety),

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i love this weapon so much:
- free frostbite
- thrusting sword moveset
- beautiful visual design
- free projectiles
- incredible mix-up potential

some things to note:
- the bullet does physical damage (affected by stuff like Blue Dancer Charm)
- uncharged heavies spawn normal bullets, charged heavies spawn stronger longer ranged bullets, and feints spawn weaker bullets but is easier to pull off
- impaling thrust seems lackluster but actually works very well with frozen needle (most notably provides stance damage to a weapon class with little stance damage)
- works very well powerstanced with another thrusting sword like estoc or crks, because the powerstance moveset lets the right armament hit three times very fast, proccing frostbite quickly
- has relatively low damage and doesn't get a big bonus when two handed, so you should use it with buffs and/or powerstance to compensate.

conclusion: frozen needle has access to a large number of "strong by design" ranged and melee attacks, and has incredible combo & mix-up potential. however, it has middle-of-the-road damage relative to other thrusting swords as well as low stance damage and has little access to buffs such as infusions, enchantments, and talismans. the ash can't be changed sadly, but it fits the weapon well enough to not warrant a necessity for it to be changable. i would recommend this for dex or quality builds in PVP in addition to early & mid game PVE. that being said, it can be used viably at any point of the game, as with many weapons, although it will be outclasses by other weapons.

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"High skill weapon set" Ice + fire thrusting swords is cheese, highly effective, not high skill lmao. You can see high numbers if you use cheat engine, the high numbers don't mean it's high skill, it's the opposite actually: Because it's a strong weapon combination, it needs less skill to defeat an opponent, it cuts the fight short. Playing bare fists is a high skill weapon set, not freeze spam. Not trying to be ableist though, I'm not saying a "high skill" weapon is better or worse, just don't get them confused

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I finally managed to beat Malenia with this thing. God tier weapon imo... Doesn't even require a lot of FP... Thanks Iji

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It might be my favourite visual design of any weapon in this game. I'd also consider Carian Knight Sword, Coded Sword, Darkmoon Blade, Golden Order Greatsword, Godslayer Greatsword, Bolt of Gransax, Serpentbone Blade among top tier designs.

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silver chariot

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You think this weapon needs more damage or more scaling? You don't remember the DS2 Ice Rapier. If this weapon doesn't do enough damage for you, then you aren't using the projectile correctly. Remember the R2 backstep attack combos into R1 combos into Imapling Thrust.

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ice spear aow is so much better

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This thing needs 1) INT scaling, either through magic or a scaling like what erdsteel dagger has (but with intelligence instead of faith) and 2) a special version of impaling thrust that fires a projectile similar to the r2 but with increased damage and range.

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does the icicle projectile do pierce damage?

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Erdsteel dagger scales with faith so why does this not scale with intelligence?

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This thing should scale with intelligence. If you disagree then why does erdsteel dagger scale with faith? This sword has a magic ice spell, how else would it have its r2?

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Given that there's no int requirement, no magic damage, and no FP cost, I have to assume this sword is just normal ice. "Forged" my butt, Iji just made a weaponized popsicle.

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While this thing has the crazy ability to fire projectiles without using ammo or FP, it is a little lacking in the INT scaling department. Being a magical sword and dealing frost damage, it would make sense for it to scale with intelligence. Dark moon great sword does, so why doesn't this?

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Shame it's a somber weapon, Blood Tax on this would be stupid fun

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This weapon does not have a weapon hit box for heavy/charged heavy attacks, it’s just the projectile. This means close range R2s don’t provide the stagger or poise dmg you would expect. Would be a reasonable and powerful buff to just let the weapon hit the enemy (?).
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Anyways, the projectile does pierce dmg and is affected by spear talisman, but NOT the arrow’s reach talisman.
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Uncharged heavy comes out slightly to the left of your character, while feint (heavy+backstep) comes out to the right of your character. Thus to hit consistently, use regular R2 for enemies moving to your left, while use the backstep move for enemies moving to your right. Charged heavy comes from the middle, and your character will not move when shooting the charged shot.

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Frozen needle is so good if you use it against a rivers of blood user he gets bleed it is so good if you use it against maleina she starts crying it is so good that you become the final boss it is so good that it wasn’t created in created ijii so he can make it

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It is weaker because it is also lighter.

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i really want to use this but the fact that it does such low damage while being worse at applying frostbite than every other rapier in the game kills it for me

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This reminds me of the Reiterpallasch

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so its a magic icicle blade that shoots frost projectiles and does frost buildup that was made by the war counselor of the carian royal family, one of the main magic based factions, but doesn't scale with int??? ong

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Low budget ice rapier

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Really fun weapon to play with. I only wish the frost buildup was a bit higher on it. Other thrusting swords get a 105 frost buildup when given the cold affinity. Feel like this one should be at least 80-90 frost buildup.

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super lightweight and reasonable stat requirements. very good early to mid game weapon

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The only rapier that is cool

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Cold Estoc +25 does WAY more frost damage than this which is hilarious.

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A reply to an earlier comment states that the ice projectile deals physical (pierce?) damage. If true, this weapon is probably the best thrusting sword for a Blue Dancer Charm build.

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Another weapon with a "cool" concept but poor execution

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So you want to do a cold build? All the cold spells and the cold infusions which scale with int? Right on, heres a literal icicle weapon but zero int scaling whatsoever.

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"This upgrade can be enchanted with Magic or boosted with Consumables.", Incorrect.

If you wish to participate in the Elden Ring community as a wiki you're more than welcome but I think most of us will insist you provide factual information.

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Does the ice projectile deal magic damage?

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Accidentally upgraded this to level 10, worth it

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Didnt know this exists, cool

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This powerstanced with Rogiers Rapier with a cold affinity procs frost super fast and absolutely shreds enemies. Great for the winged sword insignia or milicent's prosthesis and the crystal tear that buffs successive attacks, you feel like a monster.

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L2 then uncharged r2 is a good combo thats has good dps, stance damage and frost build up.

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Using this on my Jellyfish Knight Anjellyne and finding it pretty viable for PVE. The Jellyfish buff helps with the low damage and with greatshield talisman, turtle talisman and shield grease you can turtle your way to victory. Once you proc frostbite use the feint R2 to back up and throw a firepot to reset frostbite. Then repeat.

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Why no INT scaling and split magic dmg...?

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what type of damage does the projectile do?

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Ice Rapier from DS2 is back baby!

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Love this thing. If you powerstance it with itself it builds up frost reliably, but if you want you could powerstance with a fire/flame art infused weapon for auto frostbite removal

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the only honest thrusting sword

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Pew pew pew

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infinite icicle generator

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parry this!

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Anyone know if the arrow talisman makes the projectile go farther?

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The R2 projectile of this weapon can semi-reliably hit Malenia right as she starts to do her evasion move, at least if you have the right distance. Hits her with freeze and at the same time baits one of just two predictable attack patterns.

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Apart from fun factor from the projectiles, cold infused Estoc is superior in every other way. Combined with a Bleed Antspur Rapier and poisonous mist ash of war, you can inflict scarlet rot, poison, frost, and bleed. with the right talismans: Kindred of rot, lord of blood, millicent prosthesis, rotten winged sword = absolutely bonkers damage all the way through ng+7.

Nizar GG on YT has a video on this and it's a great build.

Wish the frozen needle had at least a little bit more AR to balance it out versus other options.

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This weapon reminds me of ice rapier from ds2, but not as good.

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You could powerstance this with Antspur Rapier infuse with bleed and proc Rot, Bleed and Cold by using only two weapons. It could be fun

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"Requires defeating the Royal Revenant"

Never mind

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I just wish the frost buildup improved with upgrading. It feels very wrong that cold imbued thrusting swords can out frost the frost rapier.

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It might not be strong, or meta but I still like it :)

Charged heavy stuns Malenia and is my secret tool against her

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Man they really need to “Chill Out” with thrusting swords… Yea? Anyone got my reference…? FOR HONOR?!?

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This is one of only two weapons in the game that give you completely free ranged attacks (the other being Wings of Astel). The damage is fairly low, but that makes sense since it is not a weapon skill; it's merely a free ranged attack. Note that the projectile DOES benefit from two-handing the weapon, especially if you have decent strength, since it scales with strength as well (though primarily with dexterity of course).

Also note that charging the attack almost doubles the damage and takes little time to charge, so definitely do that. The main disadvantage of trying to use this is the enemy must be not have any sideways movement or the attack will miss, even if the enemy is really slow. Mainly it's good for killing very weak enemies without wasting FP, especially if melee combat is too dangerous, like those putrid zombies that try to grab you and bite you.

The projectile applied frostbite to a troll after 7 hits, but stance-broke him after 6. So it does some poise damage and it applies a smallish amount of frostbite build-up.

For damage numbers, I tested it against some trolls in Limgrave, at +2:
85 uncharged, 160 charged with 18 dexterity and 15 strength
95 uncharged, 172 charged with 28 dexterity and 15 strength

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Might not be best damage but it's getting added to my build anyway. A couple extra rolls and a couple extra attacks aren't that hard to pull off in these games and in Elena Ring leveling is way easier. Probably done intentionally for non DS players to become acquainted with the genre more.

Regarding AOW usage I don't use it as my main so it bears no impact on my game play anyway. I use it when I need to use thrust, or when an enemy is weak to frost and thrust.

It's lightweight with fast attacks not much poise damage but come on can't expect that from a needle...

Used right it's awesome as a situational quick switch weapon because it doesn't overweight the character easily having it equipped with other weapons. Definitely a great 2nd slot weapon.

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It's a joke but not funny or just an unfinished work. We don't need 60 build up without arc or int scales. We don't need a frosting weapon without int scale. Also, We don't expect a weapon that cannot be equipped with ashes to have something like impaling thrust.

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Could we add that when you do a "feint" with it, it also fires in projectile too? Super fun in PvP, people forget about feints, and if they don't they roll back and get smacked by the projectile anyway

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My first maxed out weapon and I still don’t regret upgrading my toothpick

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Ah, old friend, DS2 was much kinder to you than Elden Ring is

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Wish we had more weapons like this and the Wing of Astel. Strange how this one doesn't have scaling in Int/Magic though.

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its a really fun weapon, was disappointed when i realized it didnt scale with int tho.

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Does anyone know if the damage of the projectile is standard or pierce? Wondering if it would be a good pairing with the spear talisman

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Sadly, it's not buffed by Spellblade Set.

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The heavy attack is also not affected by Godfrey's talisman. Making this weapon incredibly hard to increase in power without body buffs besides raw stats which will only get you so far.

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The projectile also does 60 frost build up or is it greater?

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I think this might be the only "free" projectile in the game (i.e. uses stamina and no other resources, ammo, FP etc) - are there any more like this?

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GRRM influence detected, a sword named Needle.

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This and antspur + twinned gauntlets

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Literally Irithyll Rapier 2.0 with ranged heavy attack.

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"-and launch its blade with a strong attack. The blade immediately regenerates." Oh hell nah, they done added silver chariot's rapier to the game

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been using this in main and antspur in left

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First of all, I don't recommend you keep this as a primary weapon, there are way better rapiers for that job. This however, is one of the best finishers in the game. Keep this in the second slot of your right hand armament, and then when the opponent is one hit away from death and roll spamming away from you, instantly switch to this and hit em with an R2. They NEVER expect the range on this and it's almost always a guaranteed hit if you time it right.

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I really like that the R2 attack fires the projectile while you step forward towards the opponent, the charged R2 fores the projectile while leaving you mostly stationary, and the charge-cancel R2 fires the projectile with a back step. It give you a HUGE amount of flexibility in being able to front attacks and vary attack pacing while applying pressure or backing off. While it may not proc Frostbite as quickly as some others, this ability to keep at an ideal distance pairs brilliantly by allowing you to L2 as soon as it procs to bypass guard and deal heavy damage. Absolutely love this weapon.

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The fact that the feint attack of this rapier shoots the projectile makes this weapon amazing in PvP. Just when an opponent thinks it's safe to rush you, they get quite the surprise.
Of course, the frostbite buildup is lower than rapiers that can be cold-infused, but the pure physical damage and that projectile compared to split damage and no projectile (depending on the ash of war used, of course) makes this superior.

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Can't put AoW on this and Catalyst Hybrids don't exist in ER. As much as I love this game, From has some major jackasses in some of its design teams.

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