Contents
Greatsword in PVP
PvP Viability
Greatswords are decently fast, long range weapons in Elden Ring, and are positioned in C tier. Knight’s Greatsword, Banished Knights Greatsword, and Darkmoon are in B- tier.
Knight’s Greatsword has the best moveset and range.
Banished Knight’s Greatsword has the best moveset but sacrifices range for damage.
Darkmoon Greatsword has more poise damage on the 1h r1 2 than the other greatswords.
Claymore has unique thrusting crouch and heavy attacks that make it worth considering over other options not listed here.
Flamberge is good for arcane with bloody slash and an occult offhand Wakizashi.
Inseparable has the best moveset but bad range and stat spread.
The rest aren’t really worth using, Forked, Odovis and Steeple are good options as well due to their mixups and damage potential. (I personally prefer flamberge over forked as the share the same niche but flamberge is longer with more AR and bleed, however forked has some R2 mixups).
PvP Tier List
Click to enlarge…
Greatsword in PVE
PvE DPS at Rune Level 125
L1 (Poise damage per second{PDPS}: 8.004[Cragblade 8.804])
Inseparable Sword 684.637
- Sacred Blade 785.319
Heavy Bastard Sword 723.522
- Cragblade 831.051
Occult Forked Greatsword 602.787
- Status 169.008
- Total 771.795
- Cragblade 693.205
- Total 862.213
Heavy Iron Greatsword 757.474
- Cragblade 871.095
Lordsworn’s Flame Art Greatsword 673.315
- Cragblade 707.953
Knight’s Flame Art Greatsword 686.334
- Cragblade 723.373
Occult Flamberge 639.117
- Status 170.604
- Total 809.721
- Cragblade 734.985
- Total 905.589
Ordovis’s Greatsword 734.921
Alabaster Lord’s Sword 658.836
Banished Knight’s Heavy Greatsword 731.323
- Cragblade 841.021
Dark Moon Greatsword 675.720
- Status 45.773
- Total 721.493
- Moonlight Greatsword 749.574
- Status 57.617
- Total 807.191
Sacred Relic Sword 708.797
Helphen’s Steeple 687.317
- Ruinous Ghostflame 800.638
- Status 66.579
- Total 867.217
Blasphemous Blade 703.634
Marais Executioner’s Sword 604.692
Sword of Milos 679.761
- Status 105.777
- Total 785.538
- Shriek of Milos 747.770
- Total 853.547
Golden Order Greatsword 678.443
Heavy Claymore 701.884
- Cragblade 807.121
Gargoyle’s Heavy Greatsword 755.019
- Cragblade 868.272
Death’s Poker 621.690
- Status 54.096
- Total 675.786
Gargoyle’s Blackblade 702.569
2h Heavy attack DPS (calculated with Occult Flamberge {Charged includes Axe Talisman and Spiked Cracked Tear})
Uncharged 698.095 (PDPS: 13.828)
- Status 194.652
- Total 892.747
- Cragblade 802.809
- Total 997.461
Charged 604.102 (PDPS: 18.615)
- Status 194.652
- Total 798.754
- Cragblade 694.717
- Total 889.369
Alabaster uncharged 844.761 (PDPS: 13.095)
Alabaster charged 923.589 (PDPS: 16.923)
Claymore uncharged 642.461 (PDPS: 13.402)
- Cragblade 738.83
- Spear+Counter Cragblade 1,104.55
Claymore charged 545.669 (PDPS: 17.149)
- Cragblade 627.519
- Spear+Counter Cragblade 938.14
Sword of Milos (Death’s Poker) uncharged 730.746 (PDPS: 13.002)
- Status 90.691
- Total 821.437
Sword of Milos charged 613.525 (PDPS: 8.75)
- Total 704.216
Marais Executioner’s Sword uncharged 626.153 (PDPS: 11.169)
Marais Executioner’s Sword charged 609.635 (PDPS: 15.897)
Darkmoon Greatsword uncharged 594.545 (PDPS: 11.31)
- Status 42.984
- Total 637.529
Darkmoon Greatsword Charged 564 (PDPS: 16.133)
- Total 606.984
Ash of War DPS (includes Shard of Alexander and Godfrey Icon)
Sacred Blade 551.185 (PDPS: 4.181)
Ordovis’s Vortex 750 (PDPS: 19.425)
- Charged 732.941 (PDPS: 35.911)
Alabaster Lords Pull 528.488 (PDPS: 10.526)
Moonlight Greatsword 1,104.444 (PDPS: 15.685)
- Status 52.005
- Total 1,156.449
- Charged 997.727 (PDPS: 12.579)
- Total 1,049.732
Wave of Gold 422.666 (PDPS: 2)
Taker’s Flames 590.131 (PDPS: 22.09)
Eochaid’s Dancing Blade 676.311 (PDPS: 17.079)
- Charged 749.189
Establish Order 1,040.666 (PDPS:
- Loop 475.102 (PDPS: 21.803)
Ghostflame Ignition r1 1,449.532 (PDPS: 11.159)
- r2 646.464 (13.137)
Corpse Wax Cutter 866.793 (PDPS: 14.692)
Use this Build Planner to find the optimal stat distribution for your level, for PvE allocation change the defense and damage negation values to the following for average defense/negation:
The following discussion will be a brief summary of the greatswords, I will not include greatswords that are outclassed by either Iron Greatsword or Flamberge since that would add on a lot of extra information that just isn’t really relevant. If you want an infusable greatsword use Iron Greatsword and if you want a bleed greatsword use Flamberge.
Iron Greatsword can be farmed in Leyndell which is unfortunate however it is the best infusible greatsword in terms of stat efficiency, damage per hit and damage per second however it is on the heavy side of the greatswords and has average range.
Flamberge can be found in redmain castle and works well with cragblade or bloody slash on the Occult affinity. It is a longer greatsword and offers the best DPS when factoring in status.
Death’s Poker is dropped from the Caelid Deathbird and it offers the highest DPS from a greatsword if you can land the ticks from the light attack ash of war. Given it can be grabbed early and doesn’t need high int to scale well you can use it for the entire playthrough without difficulty.
Darkmoon Greatsword is found after finishing Rannis’ quest which is near the end of the game. It offers good PDPS and DPS at range which is why it is rated so highly.
Golden Order Greatsword is the faith version of the Darkmoon Greatsword, it offers good PDPS and DPS at slightly less range which is why it is rated so highly. It is found in the Cave of the Forlorn.
Alabaster Lord’s Sword has higher motion values on its charged and uncharged heavy attacks and a much lower stamina cost leading it to have much higher DPS than its brethren. It doesn’t need high str to have good DPS and is most RL1 challenge runner’s weapon of choice. That being said it still scales well enough to be used on a leveled build and can compete with the best greatswords at the cost of some PDPS. It is dropped after you kill the Alabaster Lord in the Lake of Rot.
Gargoyles Black Blade is essentially the Holy damage version of Blasphemous Blade that sacrifices the HP regen for the Black Blade HP sapping effect. Due to this though the DPS against bosses is higher than what I calculated here as I was calculating against the average health across the entirety of PvE. It is dropped by the Black Blade Kindred at the Beastial Sanctum.
Ordovis’s Greatsword has absurd PDPS with its weapon skill and the DPS isn’t half bad outside of it either. It is dropped by the crucible duo fight.
Helphen’s Steeple has very high DPS when buffed with its weapon skill but is found in Castle Sol.
Sword of Milos is dropped by Dungeater. It has armor shred, a roar that increases str by 5 and damage by 7.5% and it has FP regen on kill. On top of all that it has good DPS for a greatsword as well as a touch of bleed.
Blasphemous Blade is found using Rykard’s Remembrance. It has poor DPS but has heal on hit with its ash of war and depending on how highly you rank health regen it can be the best greatsword because of that.
Marais Executioner’s Sword is really good on oneshot setups, being able to kill a NG+7 Melania when you stack lots of buffs but the DPS on it is really bad. It can be found in the Shaded Castle and needs a good bit of Str and Arc investment to make it hit hard.
Sacred Relic Sword is found after trading the Elden Beast remembrance at the end of the game. It offers middling DPS but the weapon skill can yield around 6,000,000 runes per hour with the Golden Scarab Talisman at Moghwyn Palace.
Inseparable Sword has a locked ash of war and a bad stat spread but can get some good DPS even if it is split holy. It can be found early in Limgrave if you kill D or after you give the other D D’s armor. It also deals 20% damage to undead and prevents skeletons from respawning if you care about that.
PvE Tier List
Note that even though most greatswords in C and D have higher DPS than some greatswords in B and A they are directly outclassed in terms of DPS meaning you probably shouldn’t build around them since there are better options. Claymore and Blasphemous Blade are subjective placements, I feel any higher rank would depend on how useful the person who ranks it views the heal regeneration and counter hits.
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