#powerstance

Gift for a friend!

a bunch of random characters in Halloween costumes

In my last post, I briefly poured some sugar on the powerstance system in Dark Souls II, but offered the following explanation for why it might have been changed in Dark Souls III:

This system was unfortunately dropped in Dark Souls III, instead opting for a less complicated and fluid, but still interesting set of specifically dual-wield weapons, which traded the ability to two-hand for the ability to wield two of the same weapon.

I think the powerstance system was a superior system due to its flexibility — different infusions and different types of weapons (i.e. swords and daggers) could be associated with your chosen combination — but I can see why this system was confusing and that there is a strategic benefit to being able to press one button to go from sword/shield to dual-wielding, rather than having to change your off-hand, and then hold the two-handed button to power-stance.

Here’s my proposal:

Put the powerstance combo in the equipment menu. Have the player put their desired right-hand weapon in the upper third slot, and their desired left-hand weapon in the lower third slot.

This would show up in the right-hand slot in-game in the exact same way Dark Souls III handles it, with your right-hand weapon out and your left-hand weapon holstered, switching to dual-wielding being achieved by a simple press of the two-handed button.

I drew a chain-link to the right of the dual-weapon icon to help indicate to the player that they’re using a custom powerstance combo.

This would allow the custom setup of Dark Souls II, allowing you to insert whatever weapons needed, infused as required, while also allowing the quick-change present in Dark Souls III’s dual-wield weapons. This would also help explain powerstance requirements better, by simply restricting the slots to weapons you already meet the 150% requirement for, and blocking combos that for whatever reason won’t work.