I've got my Ludwig's Holy Blade up to +6, which says it scales B with Strength, C with Skill, and B with Arcane.
However, whenever I have the option to level up and I see what the affect would be of leveling up Arcane, it doesn't show an increase in weapon damage. It does, however, if I level up Strength or Skill.
Is it a bug that it says it scales with Arcane when it doesn't seem to, or am I missing something? And for this particular weapon, what's the best strategy for upgrading stats to maximize damage? Would I want to get Strength up first, and then Skill? If so, is there a soft cap on skills like Dark Souls had? What attributes should I be shooting for?
Best Answer
Arcane attack is needed for arcane scaling to work. Note that slotting arcane gems will change it to pure arcane weapon. Also buffs like fire paper and bolt paper do not scale.
Good strategy is to uprade strength and skill equally. This post goes into detail about scaling. Basically upgrading to 25 gives the most percentage - 50% * base damage. Upgrading from 25 to 50 gives additional 35%. Scaling is linear in these ranges.
On my first playthrough I made a strength build and later regretted about it. The game basically wants you to upgrade everything a little bit to get max percentage bonuses. Upgrading vitality is essential because there are many situations where enemies hit for like 95% of your health and can easily one-shot you if you don't upgrade it.