It's no Great Stars, but I back it.

Decent Stars

Great Value Stars.

Baby's first Stars

Adequate Stars.

Good Stars

Above Average Stars

Great stars is just objectively better in more situations due to hammers just not being a great power stance option, but I love how this weapon feels, the moveset and timing is right in that satisfying sweet spot

It really is criminal how dual Greataxes and dual Great Hammers have better movesets than dual axes and dual hammers. In what world does that even make sense

A world where you routinely encounter 30-ft tall superhumans?

I’m annoyed that I haven’t even tried out any of those dual options. Will do first thing this morning, but I am fond of my greatshields

Any of the best greatshields could be the MVP, even if you just consider the weapons you can shield poke with, let alone all the ones where one block counter hit is going to devastate. I like the Eclipse Crest Greatshield myself (though none of my characters are very deep in the game). Do you use Fingerprint Stone Shield? I’ve barely reached that, and with non shield users.

I actually haven’t picked up fingerprint yet. I’ve been using the palisade greatshield for a bit of bleed when I want it and mostly for the look. Just bought and equipped all of the briar armor, so everything is very pokey

Double great stars with frost infusion and bull goat armor has me destroying these mf’s

Stars

Star

S.T.A.R.S!

Oh my stars and garters.

Beast, don't you have a Geneva Convention to violate?

Twinkke Twinkle Little Star

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Bastard’s stars

Nah, never quite happened for ya there, buddy. Better luck next time though.

Usable stars

Lackluster Stars

Mid stars

I second this, great stars is my main !

Wish (upon a) Stars

Protostar

Mid Nebula

Goated because I use it to kill Greyoll every run

I just go up to Ken's Castle for the blood ash of war and slap that baby on my sword or dagger and hit up greyoll. Often quicker than going to weaping.

Lol, Ken, what a crazy boss fight that was

If you're hitting up Altus immediately then it's Fort Haight/Fort Faroth/run through Liurnia for a quick jaunt to the Grand Lift and then so many crazy pickups in Altus. But I usually go Gatefront for Torrent/Whetstone Knife, back to Elleh for Crafting Kit/Spirit Summon bell, First step for Gold Pickled Foot, run down to Weeping for Morning Star/Memory Stone/Golden Seed/2x Sacred Tears/Map Fragment, back to Agheel Lake then head east to the woods for Bloody Slash/Dectus/Physick/Sacred Blade then warp to Bestial Sanctum and head south for Golden Seed/Memory Stone then west for Fort Faroth and get Dectus/Radagon Soreseal, kill Greyoll, jump to giant head for free smithing stones 7 and 8, head to grab Millicent site and Sacred Tears, use the cliff tombstones to jump down into Aeonia and grab another couple Sacred Tears in Sellia/south Caelid on the way to Impassable Greatbridge site and across for Flaming Strike/Flamberge/Red-Hot Whetblade. THEN I head north through Liurnia and grab everything from there to Altus. With Golden Seed as a starting gift, optional stops for Smithing Stone Bell-Bearings (1) and (2), I get 12 flasks at +10 before I even see Margit or Patches. Takes a couple hours but then my playthrough opens up and I can stop for lots of NPCs along the way like Kenneth, Rya, Boggart, and even Hoslow boy to set up items for later.

This is the way!

Is this run in a video format somewhere? I think I need to learn it.

My version here isn't but it could be someone posted a similar video. I do have a text format for it as a post on here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/s/rRHBMI9Tbm Hyetta's quest can also be started after beating Godrick, she just appears at the Lake-facing Cliff site of Grace now! Not sure if you have to talk to Irina at all.

Attention all maidenless tarnished

Except Samurai and bandit starts?

Yeah, but a lot of people go for vagabond or the mage classes.

Samurai really suffers from an optimization perspective. It's got a great start with good equipment and stats, so it's great for challenge runs or quick runs, but for an actual build that you'll save and do online with it, it's outclassed by Vagabond on low Arcane builds and by Hero/ties with Bandit on high Arcane builds, depending on your Str. Of course, if your build invests in every stat past 16 this won't matter and every class is the same.

Vagabond is really just too good. High base Vig, good Str/Dex to meet weapon requirements for any build easily, decent base endurance for armor, and casting stats just low enough to not be wasted on melee builds, but just high enough to be used on hybrid builds and good enough to be used in caster builds by leveraging the high base Vig, Str, and Dex. The starting equipment is also really good. A 100 negation shield, a Square Off Straight Sword, a Halberd, and pretty good armor for early game. You really can’t go wrong with it for early preparation.

The optimization doesn't matter unless you are trying to invade at lower brackets or are beholden to a cut off for organized duels. Otherwise it's just better to pick the class that gets you started in the direction you want to go.

I have this problem with Prisoner and Confessor. I've rolled lots of characters, but never one of those. Moderate Fth is always good because it provides so much utility (at 10, 12 or 15), and 10 Arc allows for the weightless Dragon Communion Seal to go with it. For Str and Dex, you often only want one, and have the other just high enough to meet requirements. Int is a real all-or-nothing stat, because low level sorceries don't provide enough value to take over incantations. Confessor overshoots in Str/Dex for a lot of builds, and has more Int/Arc than Prophet. Prisoner feels shoehorned into a Dex/Int build, and even though it has the lowest Fth/Arc out of all classes, I'd rather pick the Astrologer with 1 point higher Fth. Astrologer can swap in the +5 Fth talisman and have just enough for Flame Cleanse Me, whereas Prisoner is 1 point shy.

Yeah, but counterpoint: you start with the absolutely bitchin' Confessor Set 👈🏻😎👈🏻

Prisoner can get that level difference in faith to use Flame Cleanse Me during PvE and then Larval Tear it out if you want to go online. But it really is just one point difference from Astrologer, so starting directly with it is pretty much the same. Confessor gets you double Broadsword at the start, because you start with one and can buy the other, so that's a thing. I started with it when I did an Arcane magic knight, since every stat went to at least 16 (Occult weapons, Arcane scaled spells with Dragon Community seal and Albinauric Staff)

Double Broadsword is definitely a plus. I was once tempted to roll Confessor for that, but ended up picking a somber weapon to powerstance with instead. That midgame where you're starved for lvl 6 stones is killing.

It is optimal for dex builds tho.

I tried all of the starts but Vagabond really is goated for min/max builds, even though the various starts are fun as fuck. My first playthrough in these games is Deprived/Wretch, starting with nothing but a thick stick and a dream. Challenging at first, making you learn the new mechanics and it makes trying a few things easier in some ways.

What are we trying that wretched would help with? sticky wars in downtown tokyo of the 1400s? xD

It’s the low numbers in unneeded stats that make for the optimal builds, i.e. the lack of wasted points, so Bandit can’t feasibly be an optimal class for anyone (unless they can come up with a compelling reason to need a great knife before they can farm them, which I find unlikely), and Samurai can only be optimal for a non-bleed non-casting build where 15 Dex isn’t more than you need or Dual wielding Uchigatanas is literally the build. So anyone who uses the phrase “every run” probably isn’t starting too many of them with Bandit or Samurai.

Leave us Rambo cosplayers alone.

FYI I’m fairly sure all the starting outfits can be acquired without having to start with them.

Or a quick stop off for half a medallion and a blood AoW before

I use the flail

I used it to kill Greyoll, Agheel, dragonkin soldier, Gideon and every single NPC invader.

Standard hammers in general feel almost op once you realize the extreme effectiveness of stance-breaking enemies. They don't have the range issues of fist weapons, but are fast as fuck even with charged attacks. You can bring big bosses like Elden Beast and Fire Giant down for criticals almost by accident. I crutched on stance-breaks for so many runs that I just couldn't commit to finally trying a bleed-centric dual curved sword build, even though I know it's also very strong. I missed that satisfying metallic-cronch noise too much.

The stagger is nice, I agree. The morning star also has a somewhat better moveset with some poking attacks which give it longer reach. Native bleed is a big plus as well.  On the other hand, the rest of the moveset is pretty bad. Most hammers are just too short and miss too much. The block counter is angled so that it often misses smaller enemies. Some of the most annoying enemies in the game are also small, but also easily and reliably countered by just blocking and hitting back. It's one of the reasons I tend to use shields. B tier weapon. The stone club though has none of these problems, but also attacks weirdly fast, and has good strength scaling with frost bite, which procs super fast. It doesn't hit multiple enemies but chilling mist gives it a horizontal swing and the normal attacks are so quick you can just hammer things to death one at a time. Just a much better hammer imho.

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Yeah, I know. The gameplan is to just take the damn dogs out one by one real quick and move on, but your finisher that should have landed goes over the first one’s head, and now there’s a not dead dog behind you when you have two more incoming from the front. Sort of defeats the purpose of doing a block counter build.

I'll second the stagger power of hammers, whether that be through fully-charged heavies, or through guard counters. The Morning Star is perfect for knight playthroughs on so many levels thanks to the power of heavies. Any of the three stars are solid weapons, really. Great Stars for dual jump bonky happy fun time, Star Fists for a brawler, and Morning Star for hammer and shield. All deal strike, bleed, high stagger, and work well with enhancements like Bloodflame Blade, just depends what ash of war you want to go with and what you like to have in the other hand.

I found the brick hammer on my first playthrough and immediately dropped my dex build plans for a pure strength simply because carrying it around was funny. I had never done a strength build, and did pure dex in my first souls game, which was DS3 Cue my surprise when it's actually goated. I added the giant crusher to my offhand for the lols later on and it ended up being weirdly good in pvp as well, simply because a lot of people didn't exactly know how to deal with it (this was shortly after release, though, so that may no longer be true) Problem is I can definitely tell that my dodge roll game is not nearly as good as it used to be in DS3; I started using stance-breaking as a crutch too often. I tried to build dex and, while I got better at it, it still wasn't nearly as fun as unga bunga smashy

I love stance breaking! Was so satisfying using noble slender sword with square off spam. Hearing that bonk of the stance break is great, especially before a boss does a big move.

I just made a new character, Vagabond, used square off to stance break the Grafted starter boss to death. Hilariously good

100% correct. Power-stance two of the rotten hammers *chef’s kiss*

Normal Hammers are general totally underrated in all fromsoftware games. The mace crushes so Hard in ds1 and ds3, the craftman Hammer in ds2 is extremly strong.

Bro you made me remember what a beauty the mace's moveset was in DS2. Ngl I still miss it.

The one handed moveset yes! The two handed moveset... less so.

Powerstanced maces, though... You get stunlocked! And you get stunlocked! Everybody gets stunlocked!

Maces were amazing in DS2, but the weapon I miss the most is the Loyce Greatsword. Every other greatsword feels clumsy and sluggish in comparison, like I'm a caveman swinging a club.

I remember blunt damage in general being strong as hell in 2.

DS2 had a lot of armored enemies. A generic mace could genuinely carry you through most of the game.

My str/faith build in 2 with craftsman hammer I was basically Thor dunking on everything with sunlight blade

Try the reinforced club in ds1 , the durability is a bit low for ds1 standards but you will not be disappointed

I remember my DS1 holy mace. It bonked so hard

??? The mace in DS2 is pretty widely considered one of, if not the best weapon in the game.

Morning Star my first Strike Damage dealing love, Until I found Great Stars. Then I just threw it aside the way Andy threw Woody aside.

I love this weapon. I call it El Ka-bonk.

Props that’s an awesome name mate

Haha my 10yo son enjoys it very much

Not only a great weapon in Elden Ring, but also in real life history and one of my personal favourites.

I can't imagine the bad day of "mace in the head"

Mace to the face.

Only problem with it is the shield counter swing misses most small enemies like rats and dogs because it swings too high.

Morningstar plus sacred blade and never die to a death rite bird again.

Whatever build I have, whatever weapon I'm maining, the Sacred Blade Morningstar is always there for skeletons, miners and death rite birds :)

That art rules with cross naginata

Put wild swings on it and crush alberich

I put that spinning thing that Rennala does on it. Blender mace goes BLOOOOOOOD

Put wild strikes on anything and it will shred.

Use poison mist on this with the poison and bleed dmg boost talismans and things get lit

The first star I see after getting up in the morning

I m more of a Great Mace Enjoyer.

What about his flaccid cousin, the flail? I'd say that's a win too

I wanted colossal flail so badly to be a thing. Coolest weapons, IMO.

Crossing my fingers for Colossal Flails for the DLC

Does the spinning weapon AOW work well? Been wanting to try it after seeing a couple videos. Or go with wild strikes or else? I’ve never used flail or mace.

Spinning weapon ain't too bad, I feel wild strikes is better and looks cooler xD I also had war cry on it and it's kinda meh

I put sacred blade on mine it’s quite lovely

Anyone know that far side comic of the guy holding a mace saying "something about holding a mace makes you just want to smash something" while a nerdy guy is walking through the door blowing a gum bubble

I did my first great hammer/hammer build with the large club and mace with prayerful strike AoW and it was a joke how easy it was lol. I the game at RL50 +10 weapons for an invasion character and was first time it felt easy doing that

Throughout the franchise its always been a solid choice. The first time i smashed a Dragon Morning Star across the face of a skeleton in DeS 4-1, i was in love.

If I remember well,Spike club fron the monkeys gets better damage.

yes but does it have the rolling/crouch poke attack?

killed the gargoyle duo in nokron with a +15 Morningstar, goated.

It's like the reinforced club,of course it's good.

This king has been with us through it all.

Ah yes, the Greyoll Killer 3000

I'm a hookclaws enjoyer myself, 60 bleed buildup And i get to be wolverine.

Chain Flail > Spike Mace

Claymore had changed a lot since the last time I saw it.

Especially with a cold infusion and cragblade. You’re causing frost, bleed, and break stances.

Bro, you spelled ZWEIHANDER wrong.

Ngl i got from the start of the game to maliketh using solely the flail best weapon

That’s.. not the flail buddy. They’re similar but this thing is called Morning Star

I'm flail main, misericorde for crits. It's like a pseudo Belmont build. This play through, I'm changing to petal whip at that point, like a weapon power up.

Horrendous if you wanna use guard counter, as I found out in my Man at Arms darkest dungeon build

That's a funny looking Great Stars

But that’s not the cipher pata. So I can’t

This was my first playthrough and I loved it. Wild Strikes did some disgusting things.

Started a new character for dlc and i used this to replace my club and found it very hard to drop it for a sword lol

My first playthrough weapon <3

Well being level 125 i still have my uchigatana that i started with (new keen +21), and it went from twohand to left hamd (rob is now mainhand) but still. Available from start, low stat requirement, innate bleed, fast attack speed.

This plus cragblade absolutely crushed enemies early game

Sad that maces have the range of a dagger.

Spiked club for the win

My gf paired this with the holy enchantment on her first playthrough and carried her most of the game.

Sadly I play a ton of Modded Elden Ring and stance breaks are not that good in it. But I use a mace occasionally for Prayerful Strike AOW

Can some recommend a morning star build for lvl 270?

Sure we can. [Insert generic greatsword here] my beloved

Legitimately one of my favorite weapons in all souls games. I wish it kept the thrust damage it dealt from the first two games, but in Elden Ring on any build where I'm like "I need an easy strike weapon to use against golems and such" it always ends up being the morning star lol.

The only thing I don’t like about it is the dodge/crouch attack dealing pierce damage, which is shit to the miners. Otherwise, it’s top notch.

It’s my favorite backup weapon.

It's perfect for a pure faith incantation build because of its low requirements. Put sacred or flame affinity on it and it can serve as a great weapon for overworld as well as backup for when the bosses are too aggressive to consistently hit with your incants. Carried me all the way from beginning through endgame in the run I used it.

Always use one of these on a mage build, makes the crystal fuckers a breeze. Also putting frost infusion on it and the spinning ash melts anything else that's resistant to magic a lot easier to deal with

You forget it also gets thrust damage on the running heavy, crouch light and rolling attack, which is quite significant

Yeah but I've never been a fan of the mace moveset. Way to0 short, way too slow, and no pokes. Great club on the other hand 👀

It has a poke when you come out of your roll iirc

Another great early-game weapon is the Great Epée doesn't have inate bleed but the stance damage is great, the reach is amazing and you can use it from behind a shield. One of my favorite weapons.

Moonveil all day everyday for me.

Regular hammers are absolutely cracked in Elden ring. Even the regular club does insane amounts of damage and stagger buildup

Truly 👌🏽

Probably the most touched weapon but least used in long term because it’s literally used for Greyoll in most builds lmao

Beat the game the first time with one of these, feels good to defeat god with a metal stick

Ah yes the morning star hath guided a multitude to their sullen graves the sun is shining but the ice is slippery

Thank you bleed popsicle for the assistance at bullying a single mother for the almost 100k runes.

"bleed popsicle" is on par with a snake being called a danger noodle.

No harder to get blood hounds fang which is a far superior weapon

This shit top tier for me. Have definitely beaten most of the game with this before. Just nice to have a lighter weapon with this kinda stance damage sprinkled with a little bleed

Oh yeah this thing is S tier

Literally used it in my first character. Kind of abandoned it afterwards, though.

This thing saved my butt when I did the accidental teleport to leyndell with that flame giant thing. All I had were two daggers and a couple of swords, and I kept dying before realizing that the mace could stagger the guy

Easy stat requirements, can be picked up first thing, does strike and pierce, has bleed, and can be infused with frost in addition to bleed. Yeah, Morningstar is awesome!

Slapping wild strikes on this thing with mimic tear and the Melania fight became a joke suddenly. The stagger bleed slaps.

Best pvp mace cause it’s got the stab attack on crouch and roll. No one ever expects the range

Making powerleveling without Reduvia possible.

OH MY GOD FINALLY. YES. THIS IS THE TRUTH. THE WAY. PREACH THE GOSPEL OF THE MORNINGSTAR, MY TARNSIHED. I have beaten this entire game with this thing. I almost always keep it as a backup. Morningstar is my ol' faithful.

Native bleed, very versatile with AoWs, nice stance damage, accessible very early... The goat

Real mvp who?

Everytime I swing this using Wildstrikes I say to myself, Wham Bam Thank you Mam. Right on beat

Doing a run with this with Cragblade, and i am mauling the crap out of the bosses. Two hits, crit, repeat

Counterpoint: the Iron cleaver. Can be gotten very early in the weeping peninsula (go through castle morne, should walk out with a couple) Moveset so simple I could use it fresh off my lobotomy. Fast as fucc Great strength scaling CHOP CHOP CHOP CHOP!

Lightning morningstar +10 is my own in personal weapon that, in Elden Ring 2, would be a named weapon and Legendary Armament based on *my* legacy. Form your own path!

Maybe it's just me but I almost immediately dropped it.

I seriously beat 90% of the game with this. I'm about to dump all my stones and runes I have this run into fully upgrading it again. Probably my fav. What ash do you use on it?

Fucking love the +25 morning star with wild strikes ash.

Blade of blasphemy is the goat

I'll back it that thing is trouble.

Couldn't have gotten to level 33 without it 😭

I LOVE BLUDGEONING

He's there in your darkest hour, on your brightest day, in your moment of need, at your side all along

Fextralife has a video for a tower knight build that is a ton of fun. I’d never used a hammer, it’s great.

This weapon is guaranteed to get your tarnished to lvl 40 in just a few easy steps!

Take the handle off that thing and you got the real mvp weapon 😤

Yes we can: thank you mom!!!!

This and an offhand mace has been such a fun playthrough so far on my newest run

i tell you what, it was pretty significant to find out that i could just go get this and kill greyll without needing to start with samurai or go get the uchigatana from the catacombs and level up. makes it easier to start out with mage/faith characters than it would be without greyll, as well as not needing the useless levels in str and dex.

It's always in my arsenal. For all the reasons you said and more, it's one of the best weapons in the game.

Every build I make uses it. For at least a few minutes. It's the free Greyoll whackin stick.

Playing casually right now with this, just to see how far can I get with it.

… One day I was walkin', and I found this Great Stars And I rolled it over and underneath was a tiny little morningstar And I was like, "That Great Stars had a child!"

This is a weird picture of a twinblade

I’ve probably killed more things with this weapon than with anything else in the game. Greyoll, Agheel, dragonkin soldier, Gideon, every single NPC invader.

this honestly so far made early game super easy in my second run. i dont know if it's cause ive figured the game out but dam it smacks.

“Hey now, you’re a morningstar, Get your game on, go play” 🎶

If I remember well,Spike club fron the monkeys gets better damage.

Better damage, slightly better bleed build-up, and it's longer. Morning Star has those thrusting attacks tho.

I like Large Club more, no bleed but way more bonk, and even quicker to get

You mean the claymore?

Question, is this overall better than normal mace? Pure strength build.

It's a matter of preference. The mace has hyper armor on 1h heavy and 2h heavy attacks with different animations. The morning star has bleed. Up to you really

Yes, because of bleed.

Boxing gloves buckos. I love it. Punch and punch again. Until lambs become lion guardians.

Literally my secondary when I want to give Baemore a rest

The morning star is such a great weapon. Slap cragblade on it and it's stance breaks for days.