homepage Forums Land & Armor Combat Tactical Simulations - General Let's talk Elden Ring

Thanks. I'll be putting points in to Arcane since I plan to sharpen up my bleed. So an Arcane incantation, if those exist haha, is what I need to look for. Something that would give a reliable, low cost boost to combat or survival.

I found the shack with the NPC that sells ashes, so picked up two Keen options. Going Keen changed my Uchigatana's scaling ratings from D/D to E/B (STR/DEX). Displayed damage before applying the ashes was 141 (33) and afterwards was 129 (50). So if I understand it, before the ashes it was doing 174 damage, and after making the weapon Keen it is 179. So that is just a difference of 5, which isn't much. But this is scaling, right? So I expect as I pump dex the gains will be increasing. I'm at 12 STR and 22 DEX at the mo.

What I don't get is this. When applying Keen, the scaling is -1 to strength and +1 to dexterity (which is why they changed to E/B and dex skipped over C?). Quality however is +1 to both. What's the drawback, why would you go keen over quality? I would get the same +1 to dex either way, but I guess it comes down to the fact that ashes only work with certain weapon classes, and are also tied to specific skills. You can't thrust with a axe for example.

Maybe Keen (and all affinities) become more specialized and powerful later and it will be obvious why Keen has advantages over Quality in a dex build

The two ashes I bought were a spin and a thrust move. Unsheathe comes with the class weapon, and is really strong. But it's costly until I can get Mind up. When I put one of the other ashes on the weapon I lose access to Unsheathe right? Not permanently, I can just remove the current ash. But what I mean is can I use both the spinning strike and unsheathe together? I would guess not but I'd hate to be missing out on this versatility.