Board Thread:Dark Souls/@comment-88.112.234.208-20150114175605/@comment-4511886-20150117165339

The GSoA is a gimick weapon. It hits hard, but it's just as hard to get to that damage. If you really want to use it, get it. Otherwise, you're usually better of with something simpler.

The first thing that comes to my mind is heavier weapons that take a lot of strength. Such as the Greataxe or Zweihander. With some investments into endurance, and perhaps Havel's Ring, you can get pretty decent armor on top of that.

Otherwise, stunlocking weapons are generally good. Things like Falchions, Uchigatanas, that sort of thing. They hit hard and fast. Greatswords, such as the Claymore or Man-Serpent Greatsword could also work well for this. The difference being that they hit harder, but slower.

You'll probably also want to grab a weapon for criticals. No-shield runs only means that you can't block. Parrying is still fully possible with a bare fist, and even some weapons. I'd reccomend the Rapier or Estoc for their reliability in open combat, should you be unable to off your opponent in one crit. But any weapon with a crit modifier will do good.

All the weapons I've mentioned are buffable. That said, you may want to pick up weapons that are still unbuffable. Among these, I'd say the Black Knight weapons, Quelaag's Furysword and the Abyss Greatsword are the ones you mainly want to look at. But in the end, it's up to you what you want to use.

Lastly, remember that you're never tied to a single weapon. Even a +10 weapon can be favorable if the +15 isn't cutting it due to attack speed, range etc. So you don't need to put a slab into every weapon you use, although it is optimal. There's no special benefits to get a weapon from +14 to +15 compared to, say, a +0 to +1 or +7 to +8. So a +14 will still do very well if you don't have the slab.