BEST Curved Sword Guide (with math) in-depth breakdown and review - Elden Ring

[@Chrightt]

Also, forgot to mention the light attacks of Shamshir/Scimitar that has a slightly longer step in (very slightly - you can try standing still and swinging these on tiles to measure them). These have the same swing speed as the regular curved swords and I think the light attack is only very very slightly better than the regular version. Overall, I wouldn't recommend choosing either of them for this (especially for PVP where most of the better curved sword movesets are powerstanced jump/running attacks for multi-hitting).

[@luisgrave1352]

awesome video as always Chrightt! maybe i missed it but the Falchion shares the same R2s as the shotels, just thought id point that out! thank you for this amazing guide the curved swords are truly the most diverse class in Elden Ring

[@Chrightt]

@@luisgrave1352 I think you might want to double check this. Falchion has the regular curved swords heavy attack.

[@nanoblast5748]

I think you're not giving the shamshir the credit it deserves. It shines even harder when two handed, so you could have the highland axe in your offhand, the roar medallion equiped and one of the roar AoW on it. The alternate R2 (from the roar, so overwriting the shamshirs) can then also be boosted by the axe medallion and the charged attack crystal tear. You can make an extremely powerfull and aggressive twohanded build without much need for applying other buffs, most of them come from your equipment already.

[@luisgrave1352]

@@Chrightt im sorry you're right just double checked. Falchions have same R1s as shotel as opposed to say the scimitars, guess that's what was messing my brain up! thank you again for all the hard work you do

[@Chrightt]

@@nanoblast5748 This sounds like jumping a lot of hoops for a very mediocre build that 2-hands?! a Shamshir? You can basically do the roar combo for anything, so why would you pick shamshir? I don't see an argument for shamshir being better.

[@Skullivon]

A small note: heal on kill passives apply as an invader when the party kills enemies, so Serpent-God's can be useful in areas with lots of trash mobs to drag them through.

[@nanoblast5748]

You sir deserve more upvotes

[@Spencer-wc6ew]

Also if you have Skeleton summons active, you heal every time they're "killed" before they revive themselves

[@nolongeraperson]

Also, weirdly enough, breaking the arbalests and ballistas,etc.. also procs the heals, for some reason

[@green929392]

It's pretty much anything dying; it's really good for coop because you don't need to waste flasks

[@professormutant3252]

@@nolongeraperson since they're technically NPCs, they just don't do anything unless controlled by another NPC

[@kimballbelliston5925]

The Flowing Curved Sword's heavy attack is a dance, because it's the weapon of the legendary blind swordsman, who taught Malenia the waterfowl dance

[@farest1586]

i mean you dont need to aim if your attack is everywhere

[@agitated.tachyon]

Mantis Curved Sword really needed to be an innately dual wielded weapon like the Ornamental Straight Swords and fist weapons. Being able to buff both weapons with a right hand infusion would give it the DPS necessary to compete with other weapons in the category, and a powerstanced barrage heavy attack similar to the one done by the Cemetery Shades that drop the weapon would have made it feel more like we are appropriating their weapons/fighting style.

[@Chrightt]

Sounds amazing actually. I wish they gave more weapons attention rather than feeling like weapons that are just for fashion.

[@agitated.tachyon]

@@Chrightt See even then, from a fashion perspective, I’d be way more inclined to use them if they had a power stances power attack like the shades. Just imagine: a terrifying spectre in black robes with seemingly insectoid arms, hunting evildoers in the night. I’ve been really enjoying the more significant changes to content that have been coming in ER’s patches: the map changes, storyline continuations, weapon balances that extend beyond simple number tweaks. I’d really enjoy them devoting a small team to revising missed opportunity weapons like this one. It’d be cool to see the PVP meta shift really drastically across the course of the game’s lifespan.

[@TheLikeButtonLMAO]

​@@agitated.tachyon i think that is called bloodborne lmao

[@PaxImbrium]

Nebula on wing of Astel is almost OP on large bosses. Because it's so compact you can stick the entire nebula inside of the boss and hit them with every single explosion. 15-20 hits and a shit-ton of damage and stagger for a little FP and a single button press. Not bad.

[@KAJYT6969]

Very true, astel is sick

[@Marx_D._Soul]

As he said, it's a magic wand. Sure, as an actual weapon it's objectively worse than, say, Carian Slicer, but the beams are free and Nebula is powerful as fuck.

[@Wing0fSilver]

@@Marx_D._Soul the damage isn't even bad. I like dual wielding it with a cold scavenger sword in my left hand and jump attacking. 1200+ damage and cold and bleed build up is pretty solid imo

[@Felicificity]

What about the Scimitar and Shamshir’s unique R1 chain? They actually get a ton more range - in fact, they even come with a built-in frame trap. If you’re close to your opponent and they roll your first swing, the second swing is so long that it can rollcatch them before they finish that first roll animation. That alone makes the Scimmy/Shammy extremely deadly because at certain ranges, you can do nearly guaranteed damage even if your opponent rolls.

[@zlol_ssbm]

I main the shamshir and I'm still not totally convinced it's much better than any other curved sword

[@Chrightt]

Forgot to mention the light attacks of these two weapons >.>

[@skyron0079]

Uh ty I didn't know about that

[@junoglrr9119]

The game still in its baby shoes afterall

[@zlol_ssbm]

@Captain_Morgan I agree but for pvp 2 r1s like that is usually not very advisable unless you are sure you are going to break their poise. Shamshir is Hella style and has good range but I think the very occasional roll catch from 2 r1s isn't all that note worthy

[@theULTIMATElife50]

I like the Grossmesser over the Bandits because I think it looks better. If the Bandits looked like it was clean then I would use it more often.

[@SirNarax]

Chad. This is how I play the game too. "Yeah that weapon is good but I like this one".

[@ts6603]

looks matter!

[@tylergalligani6450]

Perfect timing, I was just thinking about doing a build with these!

[@Predatorx47]

Dude I'm absolutely loving this channel. KZbin recommendations suck, but you still strike gold occasionally. It always annoyed me whenever KZbinrs would make top 10 weapons guides without really going into what makes the weapons actually good. Really digging the number crunching. Any ideas what games/mechanics you'll cover next? I know Monster Hunter Sunbreak is just around the corner and some MV analysis and optimal combo rotation videos would be awesome, especially considering all the new Switch Skills and Silk Binds. Keep up the good work!

[@Chrightt]

I will be covering a ton more Elden Ring videos, but I am planning on playing Sunbreak. I will probably cover some vids for it too.

[@Predatorx47]

@@Chrightt keep it coming my man 👍.

[@VegGeorgie]

Best Elden Ring content. Professional, based on calculation, and no click baity trash.

[@leweeb3720]

This guy the goat fr. Really helped me with builds. Can’t wait for the twinblade analysis

[@Dr.Slaughter]

The Beast man curved sword is so good on a strength build. Its fast and definitely reliable. Its not some Op weapon, just an all around good fun weapon!

[@daboss4318]

They are op if you go bleed jump attack buiild.Its busted even compared to how busted bleed is overall

[@Adu767]

The jump attacks are great at roll catching

[@Dr.Slaughter]

@@Adu767 true that! Jumping attacks are all around amazing

[@emma-rz7mf]

2:25 don't underestimate fcs heavy. for wakeups with axe talisman you can get almost 2k damage with a fully charged heavy.

[@felipdn3329]

how the hell are you catching people on wakeup with this? you get outranged the second they roll away

[@emma-rz7mf]

@@felipdn3329 was mostly talking about pve. but try spinning slash on wakeup

[@bananajoe275]

thats even worse than i thought xD

[@spaceman4286]

Awesome analysis! The Death shotel has currently an exploit where if you buff it in right hand, the death blight carries over to projectiles ( say from pulley cbow). But this is a bug with every stat proc carrying over to projectiles from a buffed right hand.

[@francescoottavio4029]

Bandit's have best range, best AR and you can farm it as soon you start the game. End of story. Even so, I prefer the Grossmesser design and beat my second run power stancing them in a strenght build (the AR difference between them is negligible on heavy infusion).

[@kheprishornuser2423]

You should've shown both halves of the Eclipse Shotel weapon art. You only did the buff, not the explosion that actually does good blight buildup

[@qwormuli77]

To be fair, the explosion is so slow and telegraphed that it might as well not exist.

[@drillspin1]

Great video! Though there's a few more things about the Mantis blade that i feel were missed. It's charged R2 has a very high single strike MV at 190 and has the fastest charge rate of it's weapon class, all while still dealing 30 poise damage to PvE being on par with most of the other curved swords aside from point blank Wing of Astel. At least imo, Mantis Blade is a pretty solid option for PvE, especially against stronger enemies with decent openings, only enemies I've had trouble with in my time using it are the Ancient Dragons cause of how difficult it is to hit their heads and even when going for the legs they just don't seem to stagger.

[@AshenWednesday]

Another great weapon analysis! Cannot wait for greatswords and halberds!!

[@GetBodiedSon]

YES, this is what I was looking forward to! I knew you'd get to this class eventually no matter what, but I still appreciate all the hard work. Thank you chrightt =)

[@OllievRV]

Minor thing: Theres 3 projectile based heavy attacks I can think of; the Frozen Needle, Wing of Astel and MGS. tbf MGS only does it after activating the weapon art.

[@Chrightt]

Yeah, I consider DMGS heavy attack its weapon art and not its heavy attack at base because they use different methods of calculation. DMGS' is not a MV multiplier but a bullet weapon art.

[@kujira2065]

was hoping for halberds this time ngl, but your videos are so good that I'm satisfied with curved swords even though I don't use them at all

[@Chrightt]

Thanks ❤️ Will get to Halberds for sure.

[@avo2986]

Thank you so much for actually covering poison affinity. I know no one else is gonna make much use of that but my poison build is so happy rn

[@IKuzmos]

If someone watches this after Patch 1.10, the Grossmesser had it's scaling values changed. So as things stand now, Bandit's Cold CS +25 has 505 AR (296 phys 209 magic) at 40 str 13 dex 20 int. Cold Grossmesser +25 has 511 AR (303 phys 207 magic) at 40 str 13 dex 20 int. The Bandit's cold has 81 attribute scaling at dex, 74 at int. Cold Gross has 79 attribute scaling at str, 78 at int. So if any of you are running a Str Int build and don't like how rusty the Bandit's looks, don't worry, Gross isn't only a good alternative, it even outperforms it by roughly 10 AR (Bandit's is better tho if you are running a dex int build).

[@lharsay]

6:01 Also magma shower has better hitstun, the omen enemies for example don't get stunned by light spinning slash but magma shower stuns them.

[@bg-cc6hn]

Awesome as always! Can't wait to see you cover the Greatswords!

[@fifzeppelin]

Something I would mention is that if you want to use the status effect infusions on a strength focused build the Grossmesser actually has maybe 2% less AR than the beastmans while having a much longer range. So in that scenario I'd definitely say it's useful if you don't care for the harder to hit jumping attack on due to the beastmans shorter range. Though obviously a dex build using bandits would be better at doing that specific setup.

[@Adrian-ub3yz]

I think you forgot to mention that the Scimitar and Shamshir have unique light attacks that move your character forward more than the standard light attacks, thus having more range, kinda.

[@cata_henny2456]

Yeah for this reason alone, they’re viable for PvP because they have good mixup potential and more ways to roll catch than running L1

[@Adrian-ub3yz]

@@cata_henny2456 I agree, for PvP Shamshir is the best normal curved sword because of its moveset. Scimitar has a bit less range and damage than Shamshir with same moveset so it's useless.

[@Chrightt]

Added to pinned comment for this.

[@themonarchserupt4051]

ah nice, was just looking at the channel wondering when the next video drops also, it took me forever to get the beastman cleaver, the droprate is abyssmal even at 273 discovery

[@Chrightt]

The next video should come sooner than 6 days if I'm not too busy.

[@PiiskaJesusFreak]

I have been waiting for this video! Doing my Drizzt cosplay run, have been wondering which swords to use.

[@Dr.Happy11]

I love shotels, so my first run was a simple dex shotel build. Can't say I didn't enjoy it, it was fun af, but I saw the huge difference in damage and uitlity when trying out other stuff. Basically, every other dex or dex infused weapon I tried in the late game would outdamage my boi, even without the same level of upgrades.

[@abreathofairABOA]

when/ you finish covering weapon classes, will you do similar in depth videos for casting (spells/incants themselves, not casting tools)? I'm looking for ways to optimize healing incantations for a co-op pve build and would love your detailed opinion!

[@Chrightt]

I am weaving different types of videos in between my weapon analysis, so I might be covering something useful for you before I'm done! :)

[@xan7292]

Sad to see that the Grossmesser is objectively inferior from a numbers standpoint, but I'll still use it because I much prefer the way it looks to the Bandit's Curved Sword. After all, sacrificing optimization for fashion is a proud FromSoft tradition.

[@محمدالرويحي-ر2م]

Grossmesser costs a little bit less stamina when attacking than the bandit sword, it's not big differenece, but this still may be another reason to use it.

[@Galaka100]

Chrightt, great video as usual. These curved swords are so fast, particularly running L1 attacks. Is it worth doing slower jump attacks for jump bonuses or leave the jumps for the twinblades?

[@Chrightt]

Yes, especially when powerstancing! Poise damage of jump attacks vs running attacks is nearly doubled while still remaining a 4-hit move.

[@Snake_holiday]

been looking forward to this one. hoping to see Greatswords next/soon. Great work man, keep it up.

[@RoleCrow]

Best informative Elden Ring youtuber by far! thanks for your work friend!

[@L0rd_0f_War]

Still waiting and looking forward to your Greatsword Guide. Its one of my favourite weapon classes in game.

[@BossBoomBox]

Serpent-God's is good with Bloody Slash, as it will negate the damage if you kill 1 or more enemies with it. The bleed is also nice if you keep it on that path.

[@reflexassassin]

Great content Chrightt :) I'm so hyped for future videos, really looking forward to the thrusting swords, colossal weapons and the AoW video!

[@InferiorPhilly]

THIS is the video ive been waiting for!!

[@blakesweirdinstrument6448]

The heavy attack of the flowing curv sword is actually great for roll catching :)

[@_bstr_ct1832]

Fire infused beastman curved sword is worth it at rune level 50 ish where you can use the starscourge talisman, strength tear and fire damage tear to get into some decent scaling around 30-40 strength mark

[@crestfallenhussar895]

But you see the lower ar on the eclipse shotel is a feature! How else will you see the beautiful death blight animation proc on your low vigor opponent?

[@shira_yone]

I really like the Scavenger's Curved Sword's aesthetic, if it's just a tad bit straighter (asking too much from a curved sword I know) it would've look like a katana with curved sword moveset.

[@nathreetimesnineequalstwen7172]

That would be LIT... Katana with just the tiniest bit extra curve, so it doesn't feel like a *stick* And then you get those gnarly jagged edges... Chef's Kiss Perfection

[@luksgar97]

This feels like a plot lol, I found your channel like 2 weeks ago and eagerly waited for a curved swords video as that's what I'm using, and you drop the video on them on my bday. Cheers!

[@Chrightt]

Hope you enjoy! Happy bday!

[@dustinleebladesmith9135]

Yes!!!! I can't wait to see greatsword and colossal sword.

[@jasonbechdolt386]

These Videos are absolutely Incredible

[@hopefreeman7063]

Aaaaa!!!!! I love the curved swords! I can't wait to listen to this later thanks

[@Raionhardt]

power stancing blood beastmans curved sword in a str/arcane build is really nice

[@user-ou5ls2xc7v]

I hope the Flowing Curved Sword gets a buff of some kind. It’s just fun to use.

[@FidelCashflow_YT]

So for PvE I just been running two magma blades cause I like the weapon skill and lava effect. They scale with str, dex, and faith. So I use 55 str, 55 dex, and 55 faith. Im realizing now I may be doing this wrong, idk, this is complicated lol.

[@teleman07]

exactly what i came up with after so much testing. Beastman for str, bandit for dex, scavenger for hot swaps.

[@mdrazon6317]

Great analysis! Any thought about curve sword parry? (hard to pull out but caught some people off guard in PVE )*

[@Chrightt]

Fancy but not good. Golden parry/carian retaliation etc are just better.

[@namelessnightingale8991]

Also, just a thing to keep in mind, but you can put the parry ash of war on curved swords, which allows you to have more defensive options in things like pvp, while still having a good ash of war if you want to do power stance. Probably not something to base an entire build around, but something that should probably be noted, as you can do any infusion with parry, so a poison/cold infused scavenger in off-hand can work for both offense and defense.

[@giorno4859]

I think occult infusion without bleed plays a the role of the quality build, because it will deal only physical damage and scale way way better with a lower investment other than quality with high str and dex. I think you can apply elemental damage with resin or spells on occult...

[@SleepyChloeFist]

Hope you're doing Scythes, soon! I feel like they get outclassed by Halberds or Curved swords, but I really have no idea.

[@jovax0450]

Lol “but don’t let me discourage you if you just wanna be fabulous”

[@nopenope2461]

How would a cold infusion Scavengers Curved Sword perform on a casting focused build? I want to have a decent melee option if they get close but want to prioritize spell damage and keep requirements low. That sword with innate bleed works well with Cold and the wiki(unreliable) claims it has a B scaling in INT at +25. Do you think that would be a good option with something like Chilling Mist or do you think spending extra dex for Wings of Astel is better option?

[@jbark678]

I used Astel on my int build. Super fun.

[@higguma]

Ur so goated bro

[@PaszerDye]

If the Fextralife numbers are to be trusted in terms of discovery, I am extremely lucky because I found my 1st Bandit CS on my 2nd kill of the Bandit Skeleton mob and the 2nd one within the 7-10th mob. That said, have you done a video on discovery?

[@Chrightt]

I haven't looked hard into discovery yet.

[@Joel-mb5nn]

Dual Cold Infused Scavengers is the ultimate boss killer for bosses if they are susceptible to Cold/Bleed. 160 Bleed buildup and 400 Frost buildup per jump attack/running attack. Have another Curved Sword with fire on it to reset Cold once the boss is Frostbit.

[@CatsLeMatts]

Ultimate player killers too, I got blendered from 2000 hp to 0 by an Invader's dual seppuku Scavenger's running attack once lmao.

[@darq7000]

I think Sepukko Occult with 80 Arcane is still stronger, because you apply the bleed so much faster. This does between 700 - 800 Bleed per jumping attack.

[@Galaka100]

Chightt, I’ve been trying to offhand a cold scavenger as you suggested but I don’t think I’m getting much frost build up. Of course, I have no points in intelligence to go with my arcane build. So really powerstancing two occult scavengers is way better I guess? Or if I am feeling lazy, an occult scavenger on the right and a blood bandit on the left.

[@Chrightt]

Cold is just meant to proc once for the most part for the damage negation debuff + one time % HP. If you're already heavily invested in arcane, double occult will do better.

[@texandeerhunter7351]

Ye! A new video from the funni numbers bluecat!

[@janneswilmink487]

Certainly looking forward to seeing the video fo twin blades.

[@darkmatterpancake]

Another great video. Keep it up

[@ClassicalPan]

I feel like the knocks on Nox are unfair. It's a cool weapon and the L2 is actually surprisingly powerful. The range and crowd-control ability of it is fantastic as well. I use the Bandit's 99% of the time, but IMO the Nox is cooler and more fun.

[@invictus_1245]

I really wish deathblight was usable in pve, like just make it like bleed and give a boss or enemy a little thorn effect but doesn't insta kill them.

[@lebobo2000]

Hey neat timing, i just farmed out two magma blades and made a Kratos build out of them (but the gear i used to look like him gives like 6 poise so its sadly not very viable :/)

[@JellyJman]

Bro your humor is 10/10 😂

[@pataponman280]

shamshir numba 1 baybee!!

[@dangerwarg9682]

Beastman IRC also has the highest poise damage. Couple that with the multi hitting jump attacks, and you'll be stance breaking foes easier than ever before.

[@Chrightt]

curved swords have the same poise damage with the same moves. Even on the unique jump attack, it only has a slightly higher poise damage due to having 2 hits.

[@dangerwarg9682]

@@Chrightt Really? Then is the wiki really just pull poise damage numbers out of their asses or something?

[@lharsay]

@@dangerwarg9682 that's stamina damage on shields, not poise damage

[@Yobolight]

The Eclipse Shotel is really only useful for low-level PVP. Vitality gets too high to apply Deathblight before killing your opponent if you go much higher. To make this even a B+ tier option, you need to be using 2 of these and fighting at below level 80 (Somber lvl ~5).

[@bananajoe275]

Does the weapon need to have innate status for occult to work? Wouldn't something like sepukku also work?

[@kokorochacarero8003]

Don't mind me, I'll just leave this here in case somebody answers your question

[@lharsay]

Occult is always decent, only slighly weaker than keen and heavy, in case of the Scavenger CS it actually has higher AR on occult compared to heavy and keen so it's not just the bleed.

[@bunjastiks8226]

No mention of the shamshir and scimitar’s unique r1 chain?

[@medusa4454]

Beatiful videos you making out here, next video could you pls rank all the morbius movies.

[@albertobernal2537]

Hi Chrightt, sorry for the request, but could you do a Greatspear comparison video? Thx in advance. Awesome videos as always btw!

[@Chrightt]

Will do for sure!

[@robawtrob8399]

Magma vs flame bandit on a high faith build? What's better?

[@jordy4054]

What would be the optimal stat distribution for a bleed bandits curved sword?

[@yeetgrenade7492]

You missed scavenger's curved sword with seppuku/occult. while the total bleed from occult rather than bleed is lower in bandit's, higher occult scaling makes the bonus from seppuku significantly bigger, meaning as long as it is active your damage and bleed will be higher then with any other.

[@kuhkluia]

Next I am requesting this exact video for greatswords and hammers/maces pls my dude

[@sayacina]

2:32 I love this quote 😂

[@kokorochacarero8003]

This is a godsend, I just recently switched to a curved sword Seppukku setup for my NG+ platinum rush. We can't thank you enough By the way, I was wondering whether or not the bleed buff from Seppukku scales with arcane. I know bleed buildup scales with arcane when the weapon has an arcane scalling, but I haven't been able to find a reliable way to test it. I thought the buildup from Seppukku would scale from arcane if I infused my curved swords with Occult, but I can't really tell for sure. It would seem it's just a flat buff (Just to clarify, I'm talking occult curved swords that don't have a innate blood build up, buffed with Seppukku)

[@Chrightt]

It does! It comes with 84 base bleed buildup that scales with arcane.

[@kokorochacarero8003]

@@Chrightt thank you so much, this is great news to me! I'm on my way to put that fire giant on a blender right now

[@cosmiclikesminecraft]

LETS GOOO CURVED SWORD VIDEO

[@nanoblast5748]

Do you plan on analysing the weapon arts after you're done with the weapon classes?

[@Chrightt]

I am already working on a weapon arts video for damage calculation of weapon arts! It will come before I finish all the weapon classes.

[@mugo4581]

does the axe talisman works on the wing of astel projectile ?

[@Clockdrive]

magma blade looks like one of those orange lego swords

[@gigantelux5136]

sorry i dont get it when you say, fire /lightning tend to be better when your str/dex is lower.. can you elaborate more? what this mean?

[@Chrightt]

You might want to check this video out: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jYXbgH2ao5ions0

[@stephenjenks3384]

More great work. Tyvm!😸

[@aaqibali7714]

Thanks for this

[@DeceptiKHAAAAAN]

Can you please do a video on best math for a 713 character?

[@djinn0466]

Would I sacrifice AR for a Grossmesser? Yes, yes I would.

[@xunding]

a huge error in this video, most famous curved sword is not wing of astel, it's SCAVENGER CURVED SWORD. /s great work as usual on this video Chrightt!

[@lordmew5]

When are you going to do the shields?

[@Chrightt]

I'm preparing a shield + parry guide!

[@lordmew5]

@@Chrightt but i wont to know how the optimal shields for damage

[@Oliverelgato1]

Cold scavengers is good for 80 int builds

[@solarupdraft]

Am I handicapping myself if I don't powerstance my weapon of choice? Is powerstancing just generally best in pvp or pve? (Perhaps excluding str 2 handing)

[@HavelsRing96]

Fast weapons are much better powerstanced for both pvp and pve but bigger weapons are better 2 handed

[@MattSinz]

I'm still going to use Grossmesser over the Bandits, it has comparable damage and due to not being no 1 in AR is far less likely to be nerfed in a future patch.

[@uknow9319]

Hell ya first like! :)

[@Chrightt]

Thanks! :)

[@mattBLACKpunk]

So do the scimitar and shamshir actually have faster r1s?

[@silree7260]

jokes on you, we all know it's all about being FABULOUS

[@trueadrn]

Can you please do crossbows next?

[@Chrightt]

I will cover crossbows sometime, but not next as I need more testing for this.