Rapier!

(silently staring at dark soul estoc)

Rapier. Fast attack animation + damage doesn't suck = king.

Rapier has some great moves. If you tap the alt attack you hit your opponent once and than jump back quickly. Giving you a safe way to poke an enemy when on low health.
The combo with the strong alt attack and followed by normal attacks does good dmg.
That gives you an actual strategy compared to the other weapons.

Plus it's moveset also looks the best imo.

Big Sword requires less swings plus it has better reach.

Dexterity.

The best handle belongs to the rapier; the moveset is tied to the handle, and it's got a variety of fast, flexible attacks. The strong attack leading into a backstep is hella useful. The best blade belongs to the greatsword; it's heavy, but it has incredible guard reduction and damage.

IMO: start with the rapier, buy the greatsword from the merchant before the first boss, and assemble a weapon with the rapier's hilt and the greatsword's blade. It increases your damage by over 20%. You might need to put some points into Capacity to maintain average weight with full armor, but you'll get WAY more damage in return than investing those same points in technique. Also, the greatsword's fable skill makes up for the rapier handle's one weakness: no crowd control attack.

Necroing: I tried out the cricket/saber/quality starting class. It seemed really easy to inflict Groggy with this weapon. Maybe it's cuz of the rather good Concentrate skill's damage boost? Or maybe cuz I got better at parrying attacks, lol. I think its attack animations are crummy, unfortunately. Definitely helped by the Greatsword blade.

Originally posted by Tim:

The best handle belongs to the rapier; the moveset is tied to the handle, and it's got a variety of fast, flexible attacks. The strong attack leading into a backstep is hella useful. The best blade belongs to the greatsword; it's heavy, but it has incredible guard reduction and damage.

IMO: start with the rapier, buy the greatsword from the merchant before the first boss, and assemble a weapon with the rapier's hilt and the greatsword's blade. It increases your damage by over 20%. You might need to put some points into Capacity to maintain average weight with full armor, but you'll get WAY more damage in return than investing those same points in technique. Also, the greatsword's fable skill makes up for the rapier handle's one weakness: no crowd control attack.

Really not sure how you assemble any weapons or swap anything out before the first boss but I didn't see that option anywhere.