Wicked Weapon Reviews

[DakotaDust]

I’ve never been one to play more than a few weapons in most souls-likes but each of the weapons I’ve played so far in Wicked have been really interesting. So I’m going to try and review every single weapon in the game. This is likely going to take months but here’s how it will work…

Suggest a Weapon
If I have it in a chest, I’ll start a run with it. I’ll try to tackle these in the order requested, but if I don’t have it I might have to keep an eye out for it until I do.

The Test
I’ll make a new character and do an entire playthrough from the beach to Echo Knight with just that weapon. Depending on stat requirements I might have to use something else until I hit a high enough level to equip it, but from that point on I will use exclusively that weapon.

The Review
I’ll give my general thoughts on the weapon and talk about things like what weight class I think pairs well with it, and some runes (if applicable) might be a good fit. I won’t be testing every rune in the game and I might miss out on something like, “It pairs well with X shield”. But I’m just going to give my thoughts based on my experience. I’d love to talk to you guys in the comments about your experience with each weapon.

So to start things off…which weapon should I start with first?

[DakotaDust]

I decided to start with The Serrated cutter because @Lolli42 was talking about how he was a fan of halberds and I hadn’t played one yet.

So far O_o. This thing slaps. Easiest time I’ve had against the two big boys on the beach so far.

Edit: So I didn’t notice until now, because I guess I just don’t tend to keep multiple copies of each weapon, but there seems to be a wide range of stats they can roll. The one I’m using has 50% more damage and 50% more focus per hit than another one I picked up. I knew there was some rng to the stats, but not that much.

Edit 2: So this weapon is strength/dex. I noticed that putting point into one stat was having 0 impact on the weapon so I went with other stats like stamina for a bit. However, it seems that if you put points into both stats, it does make a difference you just need to say put 3 and 3 into them and not 6 into one as the 6 will have 0 impact.

Edit 3: Okay so Wicked is being especially cruel to me today. It’s one of the worst days I’ve had with the game since maybe hotfix 3. I have lost 7 crucible runs to glitches and I just had to step away multiple times frustrated. But it had nothing to do with the weapon. I’m going to beat Echo Knight, it just could have happened a lot sooner.

[Lolli42]

man i want that thing

[DakotaDust]

I’ll give an in depth review in a bit, but in short with the high stat rolls this one had, it’s been one of the most powerful weapons I’ve used so far. Had I not experienced so many glitches like getting stuck falling, I think this weapon could have cleared The Crucible at like level 12.

[DakotaDust]

Okay I wanted to do these reviews by completing all the content, but until the game is more stable I can’t be asked to spend 4-5 hours a day replaying the crucible just to get screwed over. So here’s my review of The Serrated Cutter having beat everything but Echo Knight.

Attack Style
Almost every attack on the weapon is a swipe. The running attack is more of a slam, but otherwise most attacks hit a 180 area, sometimes a bit more. These were great for clearing mobs and bosses alike. The attacks are only slightly slow, often times you might trade hits with an enemy if you attack at the same time. Which is why I would recommend opening the fight with the run and slam to stagger them, then follow up. TSC has great poise damage and typically staggers on every hit and breaks poise after 2-3.

Stat Specs
TSC is a Strength/Dex weapon and requires 26 of both. Meaning you won’t be getting to use this bad boy until about level 10 and if that’s if you go in knowing you’re trying to use this weapon. I could easily see people not being able to use it until respec gets added due to the requirements. Also, while using this I found out that you need to put a point into both dex and strength in order to raise damage. If you just dump points into one or the other the damage will not go up, at least in my testing.

Runes
The starting rune is called multi-spin and…it kind of sucks. It’s one of two downsides to the weapon, the other being the split stats, but the issue with multi-spin isn’t the damage. It does fantastic damage. But a spin to win attack typically should be good at clearing mobs, and this one bounces off shields. More often than not if you’re fighting 4+ enemies, one of them has a shield and this will leave you open to getting pummeled.

So what I recommend instead is to put on Knockdown Swirl. This thing is a beast on TSC. It knocks out, kills, or sends whatever near you flying. It doesn’t bounce off shields and it can stun lock the largest of foes, even Echo Knight. Besides your basic attacks, Knockdown Swirl is your bread and butter and it only cost 50 focus. I imagine that might get nerfed because it’s really, really good for 50.

As for the other two runes, that’s going to be up to you if you enchant the weapon or not. I didn’t in this case so I threw on two more runes. If you do, you can’t, so just get KS on there. I went with blink because I was wearing heavy armor, if you go medium or light then you won’t need blink. Eruption was more of a panic button if the screen was covered in enemies, I happened to have 150 focus, and I needed everything to die asap.

Gems and Enchantment
This is more of a preference section, some people might prefer enchanting but I like gems. So I went with electric for increased stagger. I could be wrong on this but it felt like the mini-stagger the shock did, gave me enough time to follow up with more attacks. It also definitely caused Echo Knight to cancel whatever he was doing multiple times when I fought him.

The stamina gem was mainly to make sure I could dodge or tackle an enemy if they stopped being stunned from the shocks. The focus gem you could do without but as you get into the higher levels and start dumping points into focus, it does allow you to spam KS quite a bit.

Final Thoughts
I’d give this weapon an A or A+. With a good roll and proper skill, I think you could clear the crucible at like level 12. It’s a very good weapon but the split stats and the kind of garbage starting rune hold it back from being one of the best…still, it’s very, very good.

[DakotaDust]

The Stag of Cinders

Overview
This deer head on a stick is a 12 gauge in disguise. Roll up right against your enemies, pull the trigger and send them to see their god. Personally I think fire is a pretty weak element in the current state of the game. It does a little bit of dot damage but it seems to not kill enemies even if they’re just down to 5% hp when the dot kicks in… That being said, the dot doesn’t matter if they’re dead immediately, which is typically the case with this weapon.

Attack Style
Where as a lot of weapons seem to have their own unique animations, this is one of three staffs I’ve used with the same moveset. Swing staff, get a few hits to fill focus, and then primarily use your abilities. I’d like to see the devs give the staffs more love in this regard.

Stat Specs
Cinder Stag is an int staff requiring 22 int to use. So I’d consider this like a mid-game weapon with the current content. If you’re already int focused it shouldn’t be too hard to get this one.

Runes
The Stag comes with two runes, one is Fire Nova which is a slam down with a small aoe that will burn up anyone right next to you, assuming you have the poise to take their hits without being interrupted. You’ll hardly ever use it though because the other rune is Fire Wave which is the shotgun part of this weapon. Get right up on your enemies and they’re dead. I ended up getting to Echo Knight pretty early with this weapon and was doing 20% of his health per shot. I just didn’t have the armor or health to survive a hit so it was a few runs before I managed to kill him.

Gems and Enchantment
The Stag so far has been one of the quickest clears I’ve had with Echo Knight at about 20 seconds on the first stage and 30 on the second. Had I either gain focus on focus use or focus on damage, then it would have been even faster. So try to slot that in if you have it. I don’t think it needs anything else, you could probably roll for enchantments on this weapon instead of using a white one like I did. I just wanted blink since I couldn’t take a hit.

Final Thoughts
This is another A due to the insanely high damage it has to offer. The fire dot sucks and I much rather have ice or lightning, but the damage was so high it didn’t really matter. Since you’re getting in people’s faces with this one you might want high poise and for rings honestly if you just have some good plus rune damage, they’ll carry you along just fine. Just bring in plenty of focus vials, they’re basically shotgun shells.

[Astont36]

I’m hooked on these reviews, love the idea. I currently have it bookmarked and will regularly check in on your progress/reports.

[DakotaDust]

Glad to hear it. I thought it might be an interesting idea. The weapons in the game are a lot of fun,

Any suggestions on which one I should do next?

[Astont36]

I hardly know enough about all the weapons in the game to actually suggest anything. So, why not go with your favourite weapon?

[Lolli42]

a katana?
(blabla 20 characters)

[DakotaDust]

I’ve got these two to choose from

[Astont36]

give the unique one a review, therefore it’ll be more diverse and apply to a wider range of players. Since the affixes will apply to everyone.

[DakotaDust]

On it!

Something, something 20 characters

[DakotaDust]

@Lolli42 and @Astont36, for the one handed weapon reviews do you think I should have something in the offhand like people will likely do, or should I purely just use the weapon to get a fair review of it on its own?

[Lolli42]

i think a katana shouldn’t use an offhand weapon until we get manual dual wielding at least

[Astont36]

You could do both? You could mention in your review’s if the weapon works best with dual wield or not and with what offhand weapon might be best to combine it with.

[Lolli42]

well currently there is nothing but shields and bows for off hands

[DakotaDust]

Welp, I accidentally sold the katana with the best rolls. The shop did that thing where you’re selling items and one jumps up from further in your inventory and I was spam clicking. I still have 2 more but I lost out on the highest damage version.

Noted about the offhands though. With this particular one I’d probably pair with a shield since it does bonus damage based on how hurt you are. So you’d block until you’d unleash a big hit. But I’ll do both just so provide info on both.

Edit: I’m going to write a bug report, the katana isn’t usable as it is. It states you loses 2% hp but it’s actually removing 20%. A single combo or ability use kills you.

[DakotaDust]

So the katana review got ruined by a bug as I mentioned. So I got 2 mini reviews for ya.

Cursed Crone

Basically the exact same as Stag but with lightning, but it did get a lvl 9 character all the way to Echo Knight and had I not got greedy on stage 2 I would have killed him. The reason is it did better was just that I had focus on damage dealt so it could keep spamming attacks with less down time.

I’d give the weapon an A- because it’s the same as stag but the electric shotgun missed more than the larger fireballs did.

Scythe of Wretches

This is a weird one. It’s rune attack, Reap, does not do much posture damage but if they have a shield it does. I haven’t encountered another ability like that yet but it’s basically a shield breaker. I threw on knockdown spin and it basically was the same result as Serrated Cutter but with less damage and worse animations. C weapon, it’ll hold you over until you get to the Serrated Cutter but that’s just a much more enjoyable version of this.

Little tip for the weapon is to use the roll attack to initiate. It’s the fastest and you can follow with heavy, light, light, light.

Got a suggestion for the next weapon? Let me know, hopefully it’s not bugged.

[DakotaDust]

Coral Piercer

Overview
It takes 13 levels fully dedicated to damage stats just to wield this thing, it’s the most demanding weapon I’ve seen so far in early access. So is it worth it? Maybe? Let’s talk about it.

Attack Style
The Coral Piercer has to be one of the most fun movesets I’ve got to use yet. It’s flashy, it hits a lot, and regardless if you’re rolling, running, standing still, or charging a heavy, the weapon just feels good and you look smoking hot as you slice up everyone around you. Poise damage leaves a lot to be desired, especially when compared to hard hitting weapons with stat requirements like this one, but the playstyle leans more towards outmaneuvering your enemies with a pace between dodging and attacking. As such I highly suggest you don’t run heavy with this weapon.

Stat Specs
As mentioned earlier, you have to have both 29 int and 29 faith to even use this weapon. Which is putting you in the mid to late game just to wield it. I didn’t really put much into these stats beyond the requirements because I was very much tired of being so squishy just to hit the threshold. After I could equip it I focused on health, carry weight, and focus.

Runes
The weapon is bugged and says it comes with lightning slash but it actually comes with a plague one, and it’s more of a stab. It’s fine, it killed almost anything I poked with it, but it didn’t break shields and the rune I threw on it, lightning flurry, did a whole lot more. I felt like the weapon needed a lightning rune since it was supposed to come with one.

Gems and Enchantment
Now I got some good rolls on this, except for the 1% focus gem (which was 3% before the enchantment, so good to know those re-roll when enchanting). This weapon is one you have to craft and it takes boar’s tusk which I struggle to find. So maybe hold off on risking an enchantment if you can’t make but one of these. Gem wise I went with focus gain because that’s the best in slot in the current build, but if they were to tweak or add a gem that added poise damage, I would recommend that. Poise damage is what this weapon felt like it was missing.

Final Thoughts
I want to give this weapon a S because it was so fun to play, and it had my fastest time to clear Echo Knight’s stage 2 (stage 1 still goes to mages and their shotguns) but it doesn’t really deserve an S. The default rune is okay, nothing special. The moveset is nice but you won’t be breaking poise and shields will stop you in your tracks. So the best I can give it is an A, but it’s a fun A. Overall I really enjoyed this weapon and it’ll be one I run in the Crucible a few more times. I just wish I didn’t have to die 20 times while trying to get the stats to equip the damn thing.