Talk:Drake Sword/@comment-174.61.194.245-20141026212411/@comment-4511886-20141215065137

You will deal FAR more damage with a standard weapon and high Strength or Dexterity. You can fairly easily, especially with the DLC, reach a decent level in one attack stat, Endurance, Vitality and even build a moderate amount of Attunement and Intelligence/Faith.

The Uchi is a waste down the Fire path. It scales amazingly, and has little to no value down a non-scaling path. And don't trust the page. At the posting of this comment, the values in the upgrade table are incorrect due to nerfs to all non-scaling paths. You want a fire weapon? Take something with low scaling and high base damage, like the Gargoyle's Halberd.

On top of those two points, the merchant is deceptively useful. He's one of only two merchants, along with being the cheapest and only non-DLC, that sells Lloyd's Talismans. He also has the Chain Set, which is a nice armor, along with quite a few interesting weapons and shields that only he sells, including the Reinforced Club, the Small Leather Shield and the Heater Shield. Killing him might end up with you losing something you want later on, thus why you shouldn't kill him on your first playthrough. His potential as a merchant is far more important for a newbie than that of the Uchi. Especially since you can, fairly, easily get another katana roughly four bosses later, along with buying an actual Uchi from Shiva of the East after passing through about half of Blighttown from the Depths, or practically none of it if you use the backway that goes to Valley of Drakes.