List of Good Ashes of War (PVE)
Unique
Blasphemous Blade
High damage and poise damage, ranged, health restoration. Good damage type. Can effectively replace most Crimson flasks. Very strong.
Bloodhound’s Fang
Good damage and stance damage, has iframes during some of the animation.
Dark Moon Greatsword
Decent damage, ranged, applies frostbite. Extremely FP efficient.
Death’s Poker
Good damage, applies frostbite. The followup heavy attack is easier to use, while the followup light attack has significantly better damage if most of the damage ticks connect.
Envoy’s Longhorn
While not standout as a regular weapon, the skill Bubble Shower is good, with great damage and stance damage. Best used at close-to-medium range and on larger enemies, as more of the bubbles will connect.
Gargoyle’s Blackblade
High damage, ranged. Worse version of Blasphemous Blade due to lower range and lack of health restoration.
Marika’s Hammer
Easy to avoid attacks while in the initial stages of this Ash of War. High damage in a relatively large area. Falters against high-poise bosses.
Moonveil
Very high damage and poise damage. Quick, half-ranged.
Rivers of Blood
Good range, decent damage with great bleed application. Usually weaker than ideal Seppuku usage, though.
Sacred Relic Sword
High damage in an extremely large area with great range. Only held back by being most suitable for regular enemies, not bosses.
Sword of Night and Flame
Good range and damage, but still needs to be melee range for best results on the stance R1. Stance R2 is suitable at any range as long as it connects; most of the time, you should use the stance R2.
Wing of Astel
An FP efficient Ash of War with great damage, although the delay on orbs exploding is unfortunate. Wing of Astel’s charged R2 ranges from worse to better depending on your other buffs and how many orbs you can force to collide with your enemy.
Generic
Bloody Slash
Good damage and FP efficiency, does not scale from weapon attack power and is thus universally usable.
Braggart’s Roar
Great physical AR and universal damage negation buff, even has stamina regeneration. Counts as a weapon buff, so it doesn’t overwrite great buffs like Golden Vow or Flame, Grant Me Strength.
Cragblade
Generic 15% physical AR buff that also increases stance damage dealt.
Endure
Useful for weapons that can quickly break boss stance, as you can guarantee strong hits being uninterrupted (such as Star Fist charged heavy) and start a boss stagger loop.
Giant Hunt
Good damage and poise damage, fast, good poise modifier. Most suitable for use on high attack power weapons, such as a colossal sword.
Ice Spear
Good damage, ranged, applies frostbite. Projectile has the highest damage on Magic, followed by Cold.
Lion’s Claw
Good damage, decent poise damage, decently fast, good poise modifier. Most suitable for use on high attack power weapons, such as a colossal sword or greathammer.
Prayerful Strike
Moderate damage, but heals 30% health to you and 15% to nearby allies on a hit. Also has a beneficial poise modifier while attacking. Can “drain tank” minibosses and bosses if allowed to stand near them for consecutive stretches of time. Ideally used on a high physical attack power weapon that does pierce damage, such as Rusted Anchor, for pierce counters.
Spinning Slash
Something like an Unsheathe sidegrade that offers better damage performance later on (as it works better with consecutive hit buffs), but falters somewhat on ease of use and speed.
Square Off R2
High damage and poise damage, FP efficient, quick. Scales from weapon attack power, so ideally used with high attack power.
Unsheathe R2
High damage and poise damage, FP efficient, quick. Scales from weapon attack power, so ideally used with high attack power.
Utility
Barricade Shield
Massively boosts blocking capabilities while it’s active. Strong defensive tool.
Bloodhound’s Step
Better version of a roll. Can also be used to dodge environmental hazards.
Determination/Royal Knight’s Resolve
Massively boosts the damage of the next attack. Ideally used on weapons with very high attack power to enhance a high damage attack (charged heavy attack, jumping heavy attack, etc.), or on dual weapons such as Katar.
Golden Vow
Generic buff to damage and absorption. Can be put on a random weapon to not interfere with offensive Ashes of War on your primary weapon.
No Skill
Useful for shield gameplay when you don’t intend on using Barricade Shield.
Quickstep
Generally better than a roll, but still worse than Bloodhound’s Step. Can be used to avoid environmental hazards.
Seppuku
Massively increases bleed and slightly increases attack power for whatever weapon it is used on. Bleeding enemies becomes extremely fast, especially if used on more than one weapon in a powerstance setup. Very strong, usually offering the highest damage per second option for faster weapon classes.
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