Is the Hand of Malenia the Best Weapon You Can Wield in Elden Ring? Yes.

The Hand of Malenia stands out as perhaps the most coveted weapon by players in all of Elden Ring. With its immensely damaging weapon skill, strong scaling, and brutal bleed buildup, this katana dominates everything that stands in its way. Read on for a deep dive analysis on why it deserves the hype.

Introduction

The Hand of Malenia is the personal weapon of Malenia, Goddess of Rot and one of the toughest bosses in the game. Defeating her rewards you with this exceptionally powerful Blade of Miquella that many consider the peak of melee weapons in Elden Ring.

It boasts very high attack ratings that hit up to 662 at a max upgrade level, out-damaging the overwhelming majority of armaments. The innate 110 bleed buildup causes constant hemorrhage loss on foes. And most notably, it unlocks the Waterfowl Dance weapon skill that blenderizes enemies with a flurry of unescapable slashes.

So how does this katana actually perform compared to all the other shiny swords strewn across the Lands Between? Let‘s analyze in detail.

Strengths of the Hand of Malenia

Here are key statistics that showcase why the Hand of Malenia deals such tremendous damage:

To understand how strong these numbers actually are, let‘s compare to the Rivers of Blood katana which also focuses heavily on bleed damage:

As you can see, the Hand outpaces Rivers of Blood significantly when it comes to raw attack damage and bleed status buildup.

The crown jewel of the Hand of Malenia however is undoubtedly its weapon skill called Waterfowl Dance. This move launches a swift flurry of 5 undodgeable attacks that shred foes:

Unpopular opinion: Waterfowl dance is without a doubt the most broken weapon skill in the entire game : Eldenring from r/Eldenring

Popular Elden Ring YouTuber Iron Pineapple did an extensive analysis of the Waterfowl Dance against Malenia herself, and found it to melt bosses faster than any other build:

https://youtu.be/uVw2mPlREcU

So while stats and bleed buildup make the Hand of Malenia a powerful choice already, its skill cements it as undisputedly one of the strongest melee options in the game currently.

Optimal Builds To Wield The Hand of Malenia

These are viable builds optimized to bring out the full deadly potential of this sword:

Samurai

As a katana, it suits the Samurai starting class perfectly. High investment into Dexterity allows you to utilize the strong B scaling:

Bleed

The high innate bleed can be amplified to ridiculous proportions by stacking bleed-boosting armor like the White Mask along with talismans like Lord of Blood‘s Exultation. This build causes constant hemorrhage loss on enemies:

https://youtu.be/s9Ewu3oxSLs

Dexterity

Maximizing Dexterity boosts the Hand of Malenia‘s average attack rating to sky-high levels, exceeding that of intelligence focused weapons as well. 80 Dex is achievable on starting classes like Samurai and Prophet.

So in summary, the Hand of Malenia pairs exceptionally well with Dexterity and bleed focused builds, while still retaining enough Strength requirements to not limit weapon wielding too much.

Comparison Against Other Top Weapons

How does the Hand of Malenia measure up against unanimously praised weapons like the Moonveil, Rivers of Blood and more?

Moonveil – The Hand of Malenia narrowly edges out the Moonveil in terms of raw attack damage at high upgrades. However the weapon skill Transience is faster activating with longer reach. Overall very comparable as top Dexterity katanas.

Rivers of Blood – Clearly superior attack rating and bleed buildup compared to Rivers. However Rivers has better range with its skill Corpse Piler. Still, Hand comes out ahead in close combat.

Sword of Night and Flame – Here the Sword of Night and Flame wins out as the more versatile option, with both far-reaching magic and powerful melee capabilities. It‘s weapon skill is easier to spam as well.

Blasphemous Blade – For pure Strength focused builds, the Faith scaling on Blasphemous Blade makes it hit harder. But for Dex players, Hand is far superior.

So while the broken Waterfowl Dance gives it the edge over any melee option, ranged magic abilities still give it stiff competition from blades like the Sword of Night and Flame.

Verdict: The Hand of Malenia is The Peak Melee Weapon in Elden Ring

In conclusion, if you are deciding between legendary armaments and come across the Hand of Malenia, absolutely pick it up and make it a staple of your loadout.

The phenomenal bleed buildup, excellent Dexterity scaling, and game-breaking weapon skill cement it as THE meme blade to work towards in Elden Ring right now for melee players. It dominates in PvE against all bosses and demolishes in PvP against any opponent caught sleeping. Minor balancing tweaks may come, but likely not enough to dethrone this queen of swords.

Fear not the Rot Goddess, and embrace the Hand of Malenia!