Is Upgrading Astora‘s Straight Sword Worth It?

The short answer is yes – Astora‘s Straight Sword is absolutely worth upgrading for faith and quality builds playing through at least mid game.

With excellent base damage, minimal stat requirements, and B-rank faith scaling, this holy sword wrecks shop early on. And while dex-focused weapons ultimately outscale it later, the upgrades are 100% justified for PvE.

In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll analyze Astora‘s strengths and limitations across builds, compare it directly to top-tier straight swords, and offer tips to maximize its devastation. Time to dig in!

Overview: A Versatile Faith Scaler

Astora‘s Straight Sword boasts a superb blend of early game power and mid-game faith boosts. Here‘s a quick snapshot:

• Requirements: 14 Faith
• Damage Type: Physical/Holy
• Upgrade Path: Standard/Twinkling Titanite to +5
• Scales With: Faith (B), Dex (D), Str (E)

It has one of the highest base damages for early weapons at 176 while only needing 14 faith to wield. As you upgrade it, the faith scaling rises to a very solid B rank.

The versatile moveset focuses on quick horizontal slashes that strike multiple foes. And the weight allows even low endurance builds to swing away.

So in PvE, it brings holy hell early on and continues dishing out consistent damage as you amass faith levels. Pretty divine overall!

PvE Domination: How Builds Utilize Astora‘s

While fantastic early for any build, Astora‘s truly shines on faith and quality setups in PvE:

Pure Faith Builds

On pure faith builds, Astora‘s acts as an ultra-powered starter that transitions to a lethal secondary weapon once you grab a bigger faith scaler. Those B-rank returns combined with 60+ faith decimate most mobs.

And you can immediately access it in the High Wall of Lothric without crazy stat investments. This allows pure faith players to grab the Dragonslayer‘s Axe or Saints Bident and wreck with two holy boons!

Quality Builds

When leveling strength, dexterity, and faith evenly, Astora‘s fits perfectly. It reaches peak potential by end game with impressive AR once you hit the soft caps. Infusions can push it even further!

Having a high faith scaling sidearm to complement heftier quality weapons pays dividends. The flat lightning blade buff gets big returns.

Dexterity Focused

Astaora‘s appeals early for dex builds thanks to low requirements and excellent base damage. But dex weapons ultimately outscale it. Once grabbing the Lothric Knight Sword, Sellsword Twinblades, or similar, they become better primary options.

Still, even dex builds benefit from having Astora‘s as a backup to buff and rip through enemies weak to lightning or holy. It‘s easy to integrate as a secondary option.

PvP Drawbacks

While deadly in PvE, Astora‘s dependence on faith and average dex scaling hinder its PvP viability. It lacks the punch, speed, or moveset mix-ups necessary for high level duels or invasions against good players.

By end game, straight swords with quality or heavy dex scaling like Gotthard‘s, Ringed Knight, and Lothric Knight simply outperform it with greater damage, range, and combos.

The split damage also dampens Astora‘s returns against good armor. So it‘s best left for PvE.

Astora‘s VS The Best – How It Compares

Let‘s see exactly how Astora‘s stacks against the top-tier straight swords to properly assess its damage potential.

First up – the almighty Longsword on a quality build:

So we see with optimal stats, the humble Longsword still outpaces Astora‘s in pure melee damage.

But the key distinction is Astora‘s split holy damage component. Combined with Sword Ring and proper rings, it effectively far outdamages what the AR values indicate against PvE foes weak to lightning.

Plus decent faith returns let you further boost attack with weapon enchantments. So Astora‘s effectively operates at higher efficiency.

Now let‘s weigh it against the Lothric Knight Sword – arguably the best dex straight sword:

As expected, LKSS outperforms an optimized Astora‘s with both superior dex scaling and higher base damage. It really pulls ahead once you hit the soft cap.

So for pure dex builds, LKSS (or Gotthard‘s/Brigand Twindaggers) simply operate better as main weapons in all scenarios.

Verdict – Viable With the Right Build

Based on both its statistical performance and flexibility across different builds, upgrading Astora‘s Straight Sword is absolutely worthwhile, especially in PvE.

It dominates early game with high base damage and low faith requirements. As you build faith, it remains relevant as a secondary weapon to rip through enemies weak to holy/lightning.

Quality and dexterity setups can integrate it situationally as well. But pure dex and strength builds generally gain more overall mileage from scaling their main-hand weapon.

Just don‘t expect it to fare too effectively in high level PvP compared to top-tier straight swords. It lacks the speed, moveset, and scaling depth against real players.

So in summary – bless this blade and go to town early game! And keep it handy to counter specific enemies mid to late game. Have fun ripping and tearing through the lands of Lothric!

References

Special thanks to the following sources that provided data and context to produce this guide:

https://darksouls3.wiki.fextralife.com/Astora+Straight+Sword
https://thegamer.com/dark-souls-3-best-straight-swords-rank/
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/168566-dark-souls-iii/73535227