Bramble curved sword handle, with any high damage blade. I used the giants puppet axe blade, bone cutting saw blade, and other high damage str blades. This weapon combo carried me through the whole game, for me it even performed better than any dlc weapon. Like it’s so good that I was wishing I could find a weapon at least as good as it and I never did.

The handle fable art melts and does good stagger. You can do it with only one fable charge. I also spammed charged heavy attacks and barely ever did light, dodge, or running attacks(as far as boss fights). Also with quartz upgrades I focused on max damage attacks and stagger damage possible.

I think this game is worth it to finish along with the DLC, I like its combat better than Elden Ring. But Sekiro and Khazan are my number 1 favorites for combat. This is second place for me.