Critique: Imbalance in Elden Ring's Weapon Mechanics

Scott criticizes the lack of downsides in Elden Ring's dual-wielding system, making it objectively better than two-handing.

### Elden Ring: Critique of Dual-Wielding and Two-Handing Systems
* 😕 Scott criticizes Elden Ring's dual-wielding system, stating that it is not well-designed as there are not enough **downsides for the significant benefits** it offers.
* 🗡 Dual-wielding in Elden Ring is considered **too powerful with minimal opportunity costs**, making it **objectively better than two-handing most weapons**.
* 💥 When comparing poise damage values, dual-wielding often outperforms two-handing, further **diminishing the latter's appeal**.
* 🛡 Scott believes that two-handing weapons should receive a **significant buff** to provide a **more viable alternative** to dual-wielding.
* 🔄 Unlike Dark Souls 2's power stance mechanic, Elden Ring lacks **unique dual-wielding move sets** or **higher stat requirements**.
* 🔧 Scott suggests increasing the **strength damage bonus** of two-handing weapons or making them deal more **poise damage** to create a better balance between dual-wielding and two-handing.
* 🤔 He expresses his dissatisfaction with Elden Ring's current state, where players are almost always encouraged to **dual-wield similar weapon classes** due to the **lack of real downsides for dual-wielding**.

Hey guys, Scott here. Today, I want to talk about dual-wielding versus two-handing a weapon in Elden Ring. I actually want to offer a bit of criticism for the whole dual-wielding system because I think it is a system that wasn't very well designed. They didn't really introduce enough downsides for the immense benefits you get from dual-wielding. And then two-handing is sort of left in the dust. Now, I'm not saying we need to change anything. I think for the most part, his issues are fine, and it's mostly just looking for something to critique. But I do think there is something here, and I think it's because dual-wielding is just simply too good in this game. There's no real opportunity cost other than you not being able to have like a shield or something in your offhand. That's pretty much it. For example, let's look at just like the standard one-handed R1 of a curved sword, just like this, right.

let's look at the two-handed r1 of a curve sword. Pretty much the same kind of thing, right? And now let's look at the dual-wielded l1s of a curved sword. It, they're the same speed. They come at the exact same speed. So, the only difference is you're just doing double the damage on the next attack. And like the running r1 is here, two-handed running r1 is here. And then we have the running l1 which hits four times. It's just like every time you power stance a weapon, it's just objectively better. And I don't think it should necessarily be like that. I think there should be some type of, I don't know, some type of opportunity cost or something like that because if you don't have that, it makes two-handing weapons like this pretty obsolete. Um, the only exceptions are when you get to like the big colossal weapons, sometimes it's fine to just hold one, um, but pretty much any weapon that's like smaller or the same size as like a spear, there's pretty much

no reason to not do a wheeled. I mean in this game and I don't think that's a good idea. I think dual wielding should be a choice that you go for. Nada. Why am I not doing this thing because one is just objectively better than the other and I think that's a good idea. Another lesser-known fact about dual wielding versus two-handing, uh, is that the poise values don't really, they don't match up. So if you're dual wielding, you'll typically do like a bit more poise damage than just like one, uh, if you're just holding one weapon. But you would think if you're two-handing your weapon, it's going to do way more poise damage, right? Poise damage, by the way, is the damage that is done to poise and poisons that dictates whether or not you get stunned by an attack. So basically, bigger weapons do more poise damage, and that's why an ultra greatsword will basically always stun you, but a little, you know, a dagger might not stun you. That's poison action, um, but

if we look at something like I don't know here, like the curved sword we're looking at, so a curved sword one-handed r1 does 51 poise damage, meaning that if you have 51 poise, you will not get stunned by a hit until you're hit again. Then you'll obviously get stunned by the next one. However, if you look at the two-handed r1, it's just 56 poise. It's basically the pattern is two-handing the weapon gives you 10 percent more poise damage, which is not really worth it. So that's 56 poise. Now if you look at the power stance l1, it's 61 poise. So it you just do more poise damage, you do more regular damage, you have better attacks most of the time. It's sort of to the point where like why would I ever two hand a regular weapon. And I don't like that it's made obsolete in this game, you know, in Dark Souls 3.

were holding a gargoyle, a flamester or something like that. You would never really want to one-hand that. You would probably want to two-hand that. Or you can one-handed with a shield, and that'd be okay. Or you could try to do something crazy with your offhand as well. Like there were a bit less incentive to always want to dual wield something, but in this game, if you have a spear and you're not planning to be a fingerprint shield-poking monstrosity, you just should have another spear in your hand. It's so hard for me to say don't have another spear in your hand because two-handing it is just worse than having two regular spears. So, and I think that's uh something worthy of critiquing with the game. Now what I would do to change this is increase maybe the strength damage bonus of two-handing weapons because right now you get uh 50 more strength scaling if you are uh two-handing a weapon, but problem is a lot of these weapons

are not scaling with strength, but if you're holding a keen katana and you just like the look of two-handing a katana because that's, you know, how you're supposed to two-handed, you're supposed to two-end katanas. Um, that doesn't get any bonus damage like at all. The motion values are slightly higher for, uh, you know, two-handing it, but other than that, it's not that much higher. Um, and your poise damage is less than just simply having two guitars. Your damage is halved compared to having two katanas. Um, so I, I would love to see not dual wielding nerfed. I would love to see two, like, you know, two-handing a weapon to be buffed. I don't think it's strong enough comparative to the immense benefits you're getting from dual wielding. Um, and I think that's probably part of the issue. And there's not even a downside with, like, weapon arts because you can have, you know, like even like on this character, I have, uh, on my left hand, I have thunderbolt so

in case I ever want to do that, I can nuke people from afar. And then on my right hand, I have, you know, whatever I want, so I can have multiple weapon arts too. So it's even better on that regard too because if you're two-handing it, you're just stuck with the one, and that's all you got unless you're, you know, you're quick swapping the stuff because you can't really expect everyone to do that. Um, yeah, so I think overall that we need to buff two-handing because there's just no real incentive to do it like at all, none that I can think of. And the change I would make personally is make it so they do way more poise damage. So instead of this doing 56 poise damage, um, and then, you know, like one-handed is 51, this is 56, and this is 61 points damage. Make it so this is like, I don't know, 75, 80, or something like that. Make it so if I'm going to be taking half damage or I'm

going to be doing half damage by virtue of not using another weapon here, and I'm not going to be using a shield. I have no other things that I'm doing make me at least stun people a bit easier. I think that would be a pretty nice trade-off and uh something that we can probably all get behind. Um, but other than that, that's about it. I just wanted to offer a criticism on there because yeah, I don't like that this game basically forces you into dual-wielding every similar weapon class because it's just so much obviously better with no real downside. I don't think that's a good idea. I think the way Dark Souls 2 did it was a bit better where you had basically two separate move sets you could do running L1s and running R1s. The L1 would attack with your left hand, the R1 attack with your right hand. And then you could actually activate power stance mode, which had a higher stat requirement, which is another thing that this game doesn't have. And then another reason that you might as

well just do a wheeled every weapon um and you activated power stance mode which was a unique you know double move set so i think there's a lot of avenues they could go but the safest one to make people the most happy is simply to just buff two-handed attacks because they're just not strong enough in comparison to dual wheels but that's about it thanks for watching guys curious to hear what you think about it see you next time

A Critique of Dual Wielding vs. Two-Handing in Elden Ring

Scott Jund

The Problem with Dual-Wielding in Elden Ring

Dual-wielding in Elden Ring is criticized for its unbalanced design, providing immense benefits with minimal downsides, making two-handing weapons less favorable.

The dual-wielding system is considered to be objectively better in terms of damage output and speed, overshadowing the two-handing option for most weapons.

This unbalance in the game's mechanics is seen as making the two-handing of weapons almost obsolete, except for very large weapons.

The Superiority of Dual Wielding in Dark Souls 3

Dual wielding is objectively better than two-handing in Dark Souls 3, as it offers more poise damage and better attacks.

Two-handing a weapon only provides a 10 percent increase in poise damage, making it not worth the effort compared to dual wielding.

The power stance l1 in dual wielding offers the highest poise damage, making two-handing a regular weapon obsolete in the game.

The Incentive for Dual Wielding in the Game

The game incentivizes dual wielding, making it more beneficial than two-handing a weapon.

Two-handing a weapon offers little bonus damage and lower poise damage compared to dual wielding.

The speaker suggests buffing two-handing a weapon to balance its benefits against dual wielding.

Suggestions for Improving Two-Handing in the Game

The speaker suggests that two-handing in the game needs to be strengthened, possibly by increasing poise damage.

They believe that the current system forces players into dual-wielding with no real downside, unlike Dark Souls 2, which had a power stance mode.

The speaker feels that providing a higher stat requirement for a power stance mode could be beneficial.

Suggestions for Improving Weapon Variety in the Game

Consider buffing two-handed attacks to make them more competitive with dual-wielding.

Exploring unique and powerful move sets for different weapon stances could add more variety.

The community's feedback on these potential changes would be valuable for the developers.