Hellooo,
Yesterday I came asking about blood infusions, specifically what happens when you chuck them on big weapons. You guys told me I should test it out and so I did!
Build Start-up
When making a large blood infusion build, you're going to wantneed to be looking to wield a weapon with a combination of very high bleed (90+), a good move-set for rushing/ wake-up's and a 3-hit or more combo. If it's a true combo, brilliant. And if it triggers from an R1, even better. I would aim for at least 2 of these 3 qualities if you want your build to be viable on a PvP level.
The reason why these 3 things are so important is due to the fact that the concept of having a slow weapon infused with bleed is already inherently counter intuitive - That's why the guidelines for what you need in a weapon are so strict.
Not a good start, right? But hear me out because this gets a little interesting.
TESTING (60 was the highest I levelled Luck for every test. The Luck levels listed below are the points at which you could not get any more bleed without going higher than 60)
| Weapon | Max bleed (<60) | Luck level | Longest true combo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Greatsword | 105 | 57 | 2 Hits (R1-R1) |
| Lothric Knight Greatsword | 103 | 50 | 2 Hits (R1-R1) |
| Zweihander | 106 | 53 | 2 Hits (R1-R1) |
| Cathedral Knight Greatsword | 101 | 57 | 2 Hits (R1-R1 / R1-R2) |
| Astora Greatsword | 110 | 53 | 5 Hits (L2-R2) |
| Winged Knight Halberd | 76 | 49 | 3 Hits (L2) |
| Greataxe | 97 | 57 | 3 Hits (1H R1-R2 Warcry) |
| Lucerne | 84 | 50 | 3 Hits (R1-L2-R1) |
| Spiked Mace | 97 | 57 | 3 Hits (R1-L2-R1) |
| Splitleaf Greatsword | 80 | 58 | 4 Hits (R1-L2-R1) |
| Carthus Curved Greatsword | 108 | ?? | ?? |
Notes on the testing * Weight does not contribute to the amount of bleed a weapon has * The Astora's Greatsword has the most bleed from all the weapons I tested and the longest combo * Astora Greatsword has a 5 hit combo, but each hit does not give the same amount of bleed as a normal R1. From testing the weapon in PvP and watching recordings from my opponents, I would gauge it to be the equivalent of roughly 21/2 to 3 normal R1's * 3 hit combos that trigger from R1's (Greataxe, Lucernce and Spiked Mace) are incredibly strong because of how easy they are to hit with * Weapons like Lucerne may come across as weaker on paper with it's lower bleed. But in testing performed very well * Splitleaf Greatsword only gets one extra bleed from 49 to 58 Luck * I farmed for 45 minutes to get the Carthus Curved Greatsword early on in the testing but only got the bleed results with 60 Luck so I'm not sure of the point in which it reaches it's max bleed <60 * Some weapons retain more AR than others when infused, this should be taken into consideration when choosing a weapon
Advice on the play-style
Your weapons longest combo is important, you haven't got quick R1's to flail around effortlessly so you need to be a little bit more tactical than you might be used to. Throwing out an R1-R1 combo is no good if you've got nothing to follow that up with, but if, say, your weapon has a 3-hit combo and 90+ bleed, you might only be 1 hit away from bleeding your opponent out. Make sure you don't panic your opponent into playing carefully though - You don't want to miss your chance to get your bleed off. I always try and get at least 1 maybe 2 hits off before I go for my combo.
In Conclusion
This is definitely a hard to fine-tune build, but when you get it right, it can dominate. It's really powerful in invasions (2vs1 situations are brutal), less so in duels and overall just quite fun to play with.
It's definitely not Meta. It's not better or even as good as most other build designs. But it's viable if you do it right and that's all I was really hoping for :D