Attack Rating

Attack Rating is one of the main factors that determines how much damage weapons do throughout the Dark Souls series.

Attack Rating, commonly abbreviated as AR is a number specific to each Weapon and each element that depends on the weapon, upgrade level, player stats and other equipment that can affect it. This number is used during each attack through a damage formula specific to each game to determine the damage.

Dark Souls II

In Dark Souls II, Base AR and Scaling AR are calculated independently.

Here is a Sheet that allows you do calculate all the possible AR vales weapons can have at any level.

Base AR

Base AR is a number inherent to the weapon that does not get affected by player stats. This number changes when the weapon is Upgraded or infused. Each element can have this number enabled or disabled individually, most weapons have only Physical AR for example, which Staves would instead have Magic and Dark.

When a weapon is Broken, these values are set to 0.

Base AR Formula

$BaseAR:X=(Dmg:X+(MxDmg:X-Dmg:X)*upgdLvl/MaxLevel)*BaseDmgMult*infMod:X$                                                                           

Where:                                                                                            

• X refers to any given element
• Dmg is the AR the element would have at +0 if innately active when uninfused
• MxDmg is the AR the element would have when fully upgraded [...] when uninfused
• upgdLvl is the current level of the weapon
• MaxLevel is the highest level the weapon can be
• BaseDmgMult is a value specific to each the infusion for each weapon
• infMod is a result of the inherent damage types and the ones added by infusion
  • If the Infusion matches the element, the formula for infMod is
  • infMod:X = Damage%:X + InfusionMult:X
  • (elements are magic, lightning, fire, dark, bleed and poison)
  • If the infusion is not the element, the formula for infMod is
  • infMod:X = Damage%:X - InfusionMult:X / elementCount
  • elementCount is the amount of elements the weapon has post infusion
  • Damage% is 100 if the weapon has damage for that element innately or 0 if not
  • InfusionMult is a percentage that describes how well the infusion is taken and how blocking percentages change

                                                                                          

Scaling AR

Scaling AR is a number affected by player stats. This number changes when the weapon is Upgraded or infused, when a player changes their Stats or when certain rings are equipped. Each element can have this number enabled or disabled individually, most weapons have only Physical AR for example, which Staves would instead have Magic and Dark.

This number remains when the weapon is broken.

Weapons with special scaling all affect this number directly, with the exception of Curved Nil Greatsword.

Scaling AR Formulas

There are 3 formulas weapons can use for each element's scaling                                                                                            

• Case 1, Elements that don't match an infusion's on a split damage Weapon                                                                                        
  • This one is used for Elements that an infused weapon has that aren't the element the infusion is based around and for elements other than Physical in an Uninfused Weapon. $Scaling=elemBNS*wScale*(Dmg\%-infMult/(eleCount-1))$
• Case 2, Elements matching the infusion's                                                                                        
  • This one is used specifically for the element the infusion's element matches, being used for infusions that aren't Raw, Mundane or Enchanted.

$Scaling=elemBNS*wScale*(Dmg\%+infMult)$

• Case 3, Phys values when not adding a new element (Base, Raw, Enchanted)                                                                                        
  • This one is used for physical scaling on non elemental infusions. The exception being Mundane, which simply removes other Physical Scaling and directly multiplies the scaling with the BNS.

$Scaling=strBNS*strScale+dexBNS*dexScale+mgcBNS*enchScale$

Where:

• elemBNS is the character’s elemental bonus
• wScale is the weapon’s unaltered elemental scaling at the current infusion and level
• Dmg% is 100 if the weapon has damage for that element innately or 0 if not
• InfMult is a percentage added by the infusion
• elementCount is the amount of elements the weapon has post infusion
• enchScale is the scaling the Enchanted infusion provides, which provides Physical AR based on your Magic BNS
• Mundane simply removes all other physical scaling and applies its own

Scaling Letters

Equipment menus in the game show letters next to equipment requirements to explain how they scale with different bonuses.

These letters are calculated purely based on wScale, not the complete scaling formula, hence they are inaccurate for infused weapons.

Letters are assigned at these minimums of wScale:

Stat	S Minimum	A Minimum	B Minimum	C Minimum	D Minimum
Strength	1	0.8	0.55	0.35	0.2
Dexterity	0.6	0.45	0.35	0.25	0.15
Magic	1	0.8	0.55	0.35	0.2
Fire	1	0.8	0.55	0.35	0.2
Lightning	1	0.8	0.55	0.35	0.2
Dark	1	0.8	0.55	0.35	0.2

Status Scaling AR

Some weapons have Poison or Bleed AR, and most weapons can be infused to have these elements if they do not innately possess them.

Scaling numbers for these elements however do not directly correlate with the Status buildup they inflict. They only provoke an effect equivalent to 40% of what their scaling would imply once added to their Base AR.

Calculator capable of showing how much Status buildup an attack inflicts.

Special Scaling

Some weapons have special forms of scaling. These all work the same, with the exception of Curved Nil Greatsword.

These weapons have a conditional value that multiplies all their scaling AR. This includes the damage they get from scaling damage from gear such as Ring of Blades, Crest of the Rat and Crest of Blood to name some examples. This does not include Flynn's Ring as it directly adds AR to Melee attacks, not the weapon.

These Weapons are:

Lost Sinner's Sword:

Each level of Sin reduces this weapon's scaling by 1/30th, to a maximum of 30 Sin, at which point it will have 0 scaling.

Dark Pyromancy Flame, Scythe of the Forlorn and Greatsword of the Forlorn:

When the player is Human, they only have 10% of their scaling, when the player has 10 hollowing levels (Health is reduced to 50%), the weapons have 100% of their scaling.

Ruler's Sword:

When the player is Carrying 10k souls or less, their scaling is equal to 85% of the default, for each soul carried above that, Scaling increases up to a Cap of 1 million souls, at which point the scaling is equal to 130%.

Staff of Amana:

When Human, the scaling is equal to 100% of the default but lowers for each hollowing level, up to 10% at 10 levels.

Bewitched Alonne Sword

Bewitched Alonne Sword has a special Buff that multiplies scaling by 160% for a limited time.