Dark Souls 3 update nerfs the Dark Sword

A Dark Souls 3 update rolled out just ahead of the weekend has made a number of tweaks to various weapons, items, and effects in the game, including a long-awaited nerf to the Dark Sword. The official update notes say the sword now has “reduced weapon efficiency,” which the “Detailed Changes” thread on the DS3 Fextralife Wiki has broken that down to mean about a five percent loss in effectiveness.

The thread brings a little more specificity to the table than the patch notes, courtesy of the combined efforts of players. The notes, for instance, say that the Scholar's Candlestick now has “reduced sorcery-strengthening properties,” while the thread indicates much more precisely that its effectiveness has been reduced from 20 percent to 12.5 percent. The accuracy of the information can't be guaranteed, but there does appear to be a commitment to reliability among people contributing to it.

The full, official list of changes:

All Dagger weapons: increased critical attack power.
Dark Sword: reduced weapon efficiency.
Anri’s Straight Sword: reduced scaling effects.
Wolnir’s Holy Sword: added faith scaling and adjusted weapon efficiency accordingly.
Crescent Moon Sword: added intelligence scaling and adjusted weapon efficiency accordingly.
Morne’s Great Hammer: added faith scaling and adjusted weapon efficiency accordingly.
Lothric’s Holy Sword: added faith scaling and adjusted weapon efficiency accordingly.
Yorshka’s Spear: increased FP damage effects.
Scholar’s Candlestick: reduced sorcery-strengthening properties.
Demon’s Fist: reduced weight.
Greatsword of Judgement: increased attack power.
Heysel’s Pick: increased intelligence scaling.
All shield-piercing weapons: added shield-piercing properties to regular attacks.
All Skills that enchant a weapon with special properties: extended length of effect.
Obscuring Ring: increased distance at which ring takes effect.
Hornet Ring: adjusted efficiency.
Black Serpent: adjusted tracking.
Lightning Stake: now requires 1 attunement slot.
Magic Barrier/Great Magic Barrier: extended length of effect.
Divine Pillars of Light: increased attack power.
White Dragon Breath: reduced stamina consumption.
All Bug Pellet items: extended length of effect.
Addressed other game balance issues and fixed other flaws.

The notes also state that the update will not require a patch or maintenance, and in fact if you've played Dark Souls 3 at any time over the past weekend, you should already have it installed. And in case you missed it, here's a video of guy who finished the game in well under three hours, without taking a single hit.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.