Frozen Needle | Elden Ring Wiki

I really like the backstep feint this weapon gets with the R2s, basically an attack that doubles as a retreat. Shame about the damage though, an intelligence or better strength scaling would have gone a long way.

Also the aesthetics on this thing are S tier.

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Ice rapier from DS2 you have returned, my beloved <3

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underrated weapon goes great when power stanced with carian sorcery sword from dlc

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For those people that are comparing Frozen Needle to Cold Estoc... Here are some differences:

1 - Cold Estoc does side swings on strong attacks, but Frozen Needle shoots a frost shard om the enemies, for medium range combats.

2 - Cold Estoc has better Freeze build up, while Frozen Needle does regular Freeze build up on NORMAL ATTACKS. When you use the weapon skill, Cold Estoc and Frozen Needle will do almost the same build up.

3 - Estoc and Frozen Needle can get a good combination, where you hold Cold Estoc on the left and Frozen Needle on the right, to keep using Frozen Needle's mid range attacks, and double handling Estoc for Cold Mist before pulling Fozen Needle again.

4 - Estoc is a bit longer, while Frozen Needle being slightly shorter.

5 - Estoc can be used with Gravity Spinning Thrust for huge amounts of damage and Frost, but leaves you open if you miss. But Frozen Needle is good for actively using the Skill and still being able to roll out of enemies hits even if you miss.

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Does the Smithscript talisman boost the R2?

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what's the point of this if it has no unique l2, can't be buffed or infused and is a waste of a somber weapon all around?

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What is Miyazaki's lore reason for Wing of Astel's R2 projectile portion being boosted by the Two-handed Sword Talisman and Frozen Needle's R2 not?

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Ice Rapier <3

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Rapier that was smithscript before it was cool

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Is it better to put this in the off hand with the antspur or just infuse a different rapier with frost?

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Is there any reason to pair this with the antspur rapier instead of a regular cold infused rapier in the offhand if the whole point is the frost buildup?

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They butcher ice rapier

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Frozen rapier 2: electric boogaloo

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mid needle

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Most underrated and overlooked weapon in the game. Ash of War that applies quick Frostbite without INT requirement, a projectile attack that uses no FP, and a light weight on a weapon type that can attack while blocking or be powerstanced with other status applicators. Its even super easy to obtain at low level by stunlocking the Revenant to death with Healing incants.

Most any character can use this, but I found it most helpful on my Dragon Cultist. Frost and Lightning are a good complementary loadout, and Fromsoft seems to agree given the existence of Frozen Lighting Spear and Dragonscale Blade.

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I wish this has int scaling and also deal magic damage. Feel so weird for such a weapon to deal physical damage. It can't even be infused or changing ash of war....
But using it still feel good regardless. If this scale int and deal magic dmg this would be very good powerstancing with the Caria Magic Sword in the DLC

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used this while paired with antspur for most of the DLC; it works quite well for deleting bosses from status builds. tho power stancing two of either sword is better.

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Immensely useful in the DLC. A lot of fire enemies that are waek to frost. And the golems can be delat with at range

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Does the projectile scale with Dex or Int?

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3 good things about this weapon, it's light and can procc frostbite and can shoot projectiles.
it's not a good main weapon but it has its place, that extra 20% damage increase from frostbite is invaluable, the ranged attack is helpful and it being quite light means you don't have to sacrifice much in order to carry it.

it really feels like your ment to swap thrusting swords around depending on the situation at hand because they all have their own niches in which they are strong and weak in.

if you are just playing for pve and just want to run a single thrusting sword you will be at a disadvantage in comparison to what you could have, my suggestion would be to use a heavy thrusting sword instead.
it's big poke damage, more range, less speed, but if you are only having one weapon you are pretty much committing to a slower attack speed build anyways.
in short normal thrusting swords is powerstance or bust in pve.

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Is it "communit safe" for using this first against Radahn DLC and then use the Antspur after?

(Community safe: accepted by the cringe people in this community)

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Arguably the game's first smithscript weapon. Made by Iji using the his Troll's Hammer, which is a tool used for smithing arts.

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I think the coolest thing you can do with this is to pair it with the new knife rapier , power stance and parry with the skill considering the skill of this weapon is pretty boring , you also have that cool projectile on the heavy .

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desperate for an emergency patch to apply the Smithing Talisman buff to the projectile :(

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im extremely biased but i wish this had a cup hilt instead of a basket hilt :c

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amazing for pvp. Damage isn't great but the icicle is so difficult for people to reliably deal with that it's worth it.

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Nice to see some frozen needle love! I was trying to respond to the anon from July 1, but it was glitching out. But to add to what they are saying, it really does feel like the weapon was meant to be used in a completely different way to play.

Something I noticed when experimenting with the weapon is you can "cook" the projectile and still feint it up until the point it fully charges. If you time it right, you get a stronger projectile while maintaining the feint.

This is invaluable during pvp cause it always keeps the opponent guessing. I like to play with the timing by throwing out quick feints so the opponent is baited into thinking thats the timing and then they eat the stronger slower feint projectile cause they misread the timing. Needle also pairs suprisingly well with the whip weapons too. It's a really tricky playstyle but when it clicks it feels very bloodborne like, at least for me.

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why does it have less cold buildup than a cold-infused rapier

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ice rapier my beloved....

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Without hyperbole, this weapon has given me probably the funnest experience I have had with the game thus far, and I have about a few hundred hours (cumulative across two platforms) with the game.

But this weapon is a utility weapon at its heart. It's the type of weapon you offhand for the functionality of it, and not so much for it's independent potential. However, what makes this so interesting is that it's a fitting offhand weapon but ONLY for the main hand. That sounds super confusing, just bear with me.

Yes, the projectile is awesome, but it's not awesome because of the zero cost FP and the fact that it's a free projectile, it's what it DOES for your combat potential in terms of mobility. Your feint now becomes another type of "roll". A backstep that counter hits (which pairs with spear talisman btw) makes it an excellent punish. It comes out fast, and you really should be using your feint almost as regularly as your roll. It absolutely changes how you play the game and I love it for it.

But that's one part of the pie. This is a weapon that again, is utility first. But it's in your MAIN hand. I would not put this in your offhand. You need the projectile for it to be competitive with other choices. But you "do" need an offhand weapon. Now, the obvious choice would be to pair it with a thrusting sword. You get one of the best power stance movesets in the game with it, and it's a nice compliment with something like antspur (or even a secondary frozen needle).

and that's fine, but what if you instead opted to use say...a pike...or a halberd, even a crossbow as your off hand? Well now you are complimenting the shortcomings of the weapon by addressing the range, and in some cases the damage. Some weapons do really well as offhand substitutes specifically ones with very limited movesets as a whole.

I am starting to ramble, but I just wanted to chime in that this is going to be up there as one of my favorite weapons. It just feels like I am playing a different game.

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I like to think that Iji crafted this blade for Ranni in her youth, sometime after she met the Witch in the forest and began to use frost magics. As a way to learn to defend herself in melee combat, should she need it. Perhaps it is now stored away under the ruins since Ranni no longer has need of it (due to being more than powerful enough to not require a blade).

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Died in 2014
Born in 2022

Welcome back Ice Rapier

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You are holding a thrusting weapon. You are holding a frozen needle. Just so.

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The axe talisman seems to actually weaken the projectile by a small amount, this was tested against the troll near the secluded cell grace.

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For anyone wishing this scales with intelligence, try the Convergence mod. It does pure magic damage and scales with INT and arcane iirc. You can get it as a starting weapon with the frost mage class. Not sure if it's still in the same location. They moved location of some items, but haven't checked with this one.

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For a 80 Dex, 21 Int build, this is essentially a free wand that also happens to be able to poke things. Main hand I have Rogier's Rapier, either Keen so I can buff it with whatever, or Cold, with Glintstone Phalanx. Next is a Cold Misericorde with Determination/Royal Knight's Resolve. Then this. The Glintstone Phalanx helps break stance, the MIsericorde can do a huge critical with Determination/RKR, and this gives you free ranged attacks and, if needed, Impaling Thrust, which also does good stance damage. All 3 weapons do cold damage, helping you get the status effect, and a quick use of Spark Aromatic removes the effect, as well as being the highest damage consumable for Dex. It's a great setup, and this weapon, plus the Ancestral Spirit's Horn (and, if you wanted, either the Sacrificial Axe or Sword of Milos) means you can run around in dungeons or maps, cleaning up trash mobs to get your FP back from range with little threat to yourself. And at 2.5 wgt, it's an easy include on lots of Dex builds.

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should have had freezing mist

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While the damage is negligible unless your character is spec into Dex, this thrusting sword may prove to be vexing if you keep using R2 backstep to zone in PVP. I can see it now.

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Why doesn’t this have a unique ash of war with a cool ice effect? Ugh missed opportunity

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stonebarb cracked tear + this + spear talisman = gun parry

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Got through the whole game with it, from the moment I found it

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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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