Raw Upgrades | Dark Souls Wiki

It actually scales with resistance

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This upgrade used to be worthless, but Remastered introduced weapon level matchmaking. Raw +5 is a brutal choice for targeting players in darkroot/depths/blighttown, who are typically near normal +5 (constant invasions in 2023). It allows an invader to vitality gouge, and weapon buffs can be slapped on top: great magic weapon adds 200 AR with only 14 points in INT and the ivory catalyst.

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Full Raw upgrade stops you at +10 weapon power. It means you will never be matched with players having fully upgraded wepons. So it is a good option for making mid lvl pvp/co-op character.

Just pick your weapon of choice and raise enough STR/DEX to use it (since Raw weapons have reduced scalling anyway there is no point in leveling them more). From there there are multiple options. Best shot is to focus on boosting your stamina or health and getting some magic in mix so you can buff your weapon (if you don't want to buff use +5 Fire instead of Raw).

There is other weapon ranked at +10: the Manus Catalyst and dark sorceries do not require large INT investment. So you can make pretty strong and dangerous mid lvl build armed with Dark Bead and Raw STR weapon buffed using Greater Magic Weapon to hit even more.

Another pick is miracle path. Put most of your levels into FAI to buff your Raw weapon really high, add some offensive miracles and you have really powerful Sunbro / Darkmoon at mid level range.

So no matter if you want to be a nightmare invader or awesome helping summon at mid level range Raw weapons are really good.

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Appears raw is best physical unless your going to grind darkwraiths or only use 1 weapon

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SL54 with 22Str 25end and 16dex using Raw Zweihander. It took me 10 hits to put down spider lady. Burden below 25% rings F&P and Steel Protection and forest hunters are smacked against the dirt and killed easy as flies. Raw Zweihander is imo top tier early game and ez to get weapon. Correct me if I'm wrong

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raw dog

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For y'all questioning the purpose/place of this upgrade path vs regular +lvl / fire / light , and pulling numbers, yes, the others are better and superior eventually and/or a bit later.

The point is to provide an alternate path without falling far behind on the melee aspect (large part) if one were to advance / lvl without focus or regard for major weapon stats.

Maybe a faith/int build, or someone who just cant spare the extra wep stats? Or someone like myself, doing a SL1 allboss+DLC run; Clubs: Gotta catch 'em all!

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Damage difference (base+scaling) of a Raw upgrade path is utterly negligible compared to a Standard path even at base requirements for the weapon. This is not DS3 Raw that actually does something. Divine and fire upgrades, and weapons with inherent elemental properties will get you way more damage early on, and they're almost as good as Raw with a weapon buff.

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so is raw the same as ds3 raw?

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Raw falchion w/ heavy armor and gold pine resin is one of the best twink setups when it comes to easy accessibility, handling other twinks, handling runners, and handling ganks.

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Seems like a good option for low level co-op dedicated builds to get more of an edge against twink invaders, but still stay within a reasonable weapon level range for early game summons.
I get a kick out of helping people with gargoyles, but it sucks when the poise boys, dragon heads, or the WoG brigade shows up. I think hosts have a lot of fun when their white spirits can help them fend of you red guys.

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Gordon Ramsay's most hated upgrade path

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the "the fact that i only increase my vigor doesn't mean i have a problem" path

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I'd say this is for base stats 1 handed a weapon, but weapons like the large club double in AR at +15 with base stats.

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I am on my first playthrough, and I've actually come to like using the Raw upgrade path. It lets me focus on gaining health and endurance, and will help mitigate my lower damage stats. I know it is not a long term solution, as this path will eventually be outclassed, but I think it was really cool that I could do this path and not feel like I am just scratching my opponents early game.

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from my personal experience i would only use raw if u want to have base stats for your weapon, and still want to use a buff SLB DMB or whatever, if u dont want that i would just use lightning or chaos

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A +0 Fire weapon gets more AR than a +5 Raw one. I just doesn't see the point of this. You can get a better infusion even sooner. If you plan on a low level build, pay a visit to Vamos and forget about this...

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Wow this page doesn't say***** You need to give him any ember to unlock Raw upgrades

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bruh

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It's to get more damage out of a weapon without relying on the stat scaling (strength/dex/faith/intelligence/ etc.)

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for people who went magic build or put all their point early game into health and endurance I guess

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Still don't really get what this is for. I guess it's only good if you can't get to +10 weapons yet.

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The only use I could think of raw is if you want more base dmg before anor londo or at low lvl pvp and even then a 10+ isn’t far behind

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