Talk:Raw (upgrade path)/@comment-72.87.217.148-20160717172816/@comment-124.171.23.248-20161031024139

Raw is basically the "economy option". Yeah, even a +5 Raw weapon will have lower base damage than the same weapon at normal +13, not to mention the bluntened scalings, but it's phenomenally cheaper. Everyone says that a +15 base weapon is better than a +5 Raw, which is true, but upgrading, say, a Halberd to +15 would cost 7 Titanite Chunks and a Titanite Slab, not to mention the cost in Large Titanite Shards and the requirement to get the Very Large Ember, while a Raw Halberd +5 only costs the same 10 Large Titanite Shards that it would to get the standard one to +10 and gets +34 damage. If you pile all your points into Vitality and Endurance, the low scaling doesn't matter, and you can get this a lot earlier than the classic "I don't care about scaling" paths like Lightning and Chaos.