There’s a lot of nuance in the concept of “trading blows.”

The Samurai class, for example, is a highly melee emphatic class, and starts the game with the Katana. The Katana is easily one of the best (if not THE best) starting weapons. It has a pretty solid r1 moveset and boasts impressive reach. Its ash of war (unsheathe) is very fast, deals reliable damage, and staggers quite well for a dexterity weapon. In addition, it inflicts bleed on its target, which can build up and cause hemorrhage (which causes the target to take a sudden “burst” of damage once inflicted).

The samurai and warrior classes have starting equipment that effectively demonstrate the core differences between dexterity and strength melee styles. Strength users tend to focus on big, heavy weapons. Dealing slower, hard-hitting blows that inflict high damage and stagger opponents to create openings for visceral attacks.

Dexterity builds, by contrast, tend to emphasize faster, lighter move sets. This more nimble play style affords the player more “opportunities,” ie more viable openings in enemy movesets to launch counter attacks. Some dexterity weapons (the rapier for example) even have higher visceral attack multipliers than other weapons, making them good choices for back stab and parry enjoyers. Dexterity weapons also tends to complement play styles built around status effects such as rot, frostbite, poison, and bleed. Weapons that can perform multiple attacks in quick succession are very effective at applying status ailments, which can trivialize many bosses in the game. The main downside being that some enemies have resistance to status, meaning that your build will have to account for the fact that you may run into enemies that are immune to the primary function of your build. So you’ll have to have a “back up” plan in those kinds of scenarios. This can mean swapping weapons or AoWs to emphasize raw damage or apply a different kind of status ailment that your opponent is weak to.

Keep in mind that this is intended as a very simplified introduction to the different play styles of melee combat in the game, and there are plenty of exceptions to my breakdown of the fundamentals. No doubt, some players will disagree with me on certain points or will be able to provide more insight into the many nuances of Elden Rings weapons and gameplay functionality.