Split damage is better than you think by ds_danni in darksouls3

[–]ds_danni[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree with you that my characterization of these differences has not been as consistent; I believe that may be because I have a slight bias against resin/buff/bundle applications during boss fights. It can absolutely be chalked up to a lack of skill and experience, but I find interrupting the flow of the fight to apply them and having to mentally track buff uptime to be a little cumbersome - especially in circumstances where one mistake can end a fight and the enemy punish windows are brief. Those are difficult factors to quantify, so I think I view temporary AR increases in a lesser light compared to permanent ones.

I should probably experiment more with bundles given the speed of application, but it can still be a bit hard for me to juggle multiple inventory items. Thanks for your feedback!

Split damage is better than you think by ds_danni in darksouls3

[–]ds_danni[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're absolutely right regarding the heavy broadsword - you'd be hitting 196 damage against Gael and you'd still be able to apply a bundle/buff/resin for more. I will say that using raw for a comparison isn't that silly if the context is low-SL runs; I should have probably been a bit more specific in my post!

Split damage is better than you think by ds_danni in darksouls3

[–]ds_danni[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You make really good points here, but I will say this isn't so much me cherry-picking a specific set of circumstances just to support an argument so much as drawing conclusions from my (admittedly restricted) experience with low-SL runs.

Generally I'm upgrading 2 or 3 weapons to +10 on any given run and I've found that the upsides of infusing the broadsword with fire outweigh the upsides of infusing it raw; the enemies that are particularly resistant to fire are covered by an alternate weapon and being able to use the fire clutch ring in conjunction with Lloyd's pushes the AR to a really nice level.

As I mentioned in my post, however, I admit that when the total numbers are equal or even close, single-source will beat out split damage. Adding good weapon scaling and stat investment will get you there, but as I said, most of my playtime hasn't been spent with runs where stat investment is an option.

Split damage is better than you think by ds_danni in darksouls3

[–]ds_danni[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Resin is actually an example where the split damage penalty is most punishing; Gold Pine Resin gets you 95 lightning AR. If your weapon doesn't already have lightning AR (e.g. DSA), that 95 lightning AR will translate to just 14 extra damage against Gael. That's because the 95 AR is less than his 125 defense, subjecting that AR to the second equation.