Dark Souls 3 Best Melee Weapons for Sorcerers (1800+ Words)

As a Dark Souls 3 fanatic with over 800 hours played, I‘ve tried just about every build imaginable. Sorcerers can be extremely powerful when played right, but you need a solid melee weapon to hold your own in close quarters.

Through extensive testing and research, I‘ve identified the definitive best melee weapons for sorcerers and battle mages. Before we dive in, let‘s briefly cover some tips on playing a sorcerer effectively in Dark Souls 3.

Playing as a Sorcerer or Battle Mage

The key stats for sorcerers are:

• Intelligence – Powers magic damage and useful weapons
• Attunement – Increases FP (mana) to cast more spells

You‘ll also want to equip items that boost your spells:

• Young Dragon Ring – Boosts sorceries by 20%
• Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring – Raises sorcery damage by additional 20%
• Crown of Dusk – Further amplify damage by 10%

Take advantage of range and crowd control to manage groups from afar. Free-aim your spells instead of locking on. Learn to use your mana efficiently.

When enemies get too close for comfort, switch to a fast melee weapon tailored for intelligence builds. I‘ll cover the best options below.

With high magic damage, ranged attacks, and crowd control, sorcerers can demolish certain bosses and encounters. But it‘s crucial to have a strong melee backup for when things get dicey.

Best Melee Weapons for a Sorcerer Build

Here are the best melee weapons I‘ve used extensively and recommend for battle mage builds in Dark Souls 3:

🌟 Moonlight Greatsword 🌟

The iconic Moonlight Greatsword is by far my top pick. With high physical and magical damage, as well as excellent intelligence scaling, this weapon hits like an absolute truck.

The elegant silver blade fires off ranged magic waves with its skill Moonlight Vortex. It has good poise for trading blows, and the moveset offers wide swings to catch rolls.

I used the Moonlight Greatsword to crush bosses like Dragonslayer Armor on my high intelligence build. It‘s quite simply the ultimate armament for a spell-sword.

Greatsword of Judgment

This gorgeous ultra greatsword dishes out substantial magical damage along with each heavy swing.

The Stance weapon art emits glorious arcane blasts, complementing spells nicely.

Despite its heavy weight, I was able to wield the Greatsword of Judgment effectively on my 50 intelligence mage. It provides outstanding close range burst potential.

🌟 Crystal Sage‘s Rapier 🌟

While the damage of Crystal Sage‘s Rapier appears underwhelming at first glance, the crucial difference is the rapier‘s S-rank intelligence scaling when upgraded. You can achieve some monstrous numbers with high enough intelligence investment.

The rapier also naturally boosts item discovery, useful for farming rare materials. Paired with its swift moveset, range, and shield-piercing attacks, Crystal Sage‘s Rapier is fantastic for landing critical hits safely from a distance.

Honorable Mentions

While not as powerful in my testing, the following weapons are also great backup options:

• Immolation Tinder – Halberd that doubles as a fire-casting catalyst
• Friede‘s Great Scythe – Superior range and frost buildup
• Cleric‘s Candlestick – Functions as a staff for sorceries
• Onikiri and Ubadachi – Bleed-infused twin katanas

I chose weapons tailored to intelligence-focused builds that synergize with spellswords and battle mages in Dark Souls 3. Your playstyle may favor different attributes, so pick armaments aligning with your own preferences and stats.

Final Thoughts

Playing as a sorcerer or battle mage allows you to destroy enemies from afar using devastating magic. But when foes encroach on your position, the top-tier melee weapons above ensure you can still cut them down effectively.

The Moonlight Greatsword and Crystal Sage‘s Rapier are my personal go-to choices covering both power and speed. I crushed Dark Souls 3 repeatedly by combining ranged sorceries with the hard-hitting blades when enemies got too close.

Hopefully this guide gives you some great ideas on arming your own sorcerer build! Let me know if you have any other questions.