Did they really have to nerf it that hard? I'd get if they halved of from 40 to 20 poise damage but to 10? Way to nerf it into the ground, not that they needed to nerf it in the first place. Couldn't they have just nerfed its effectiveness in PvP and not ruin it in the PvE?

Malenia was first try with this AoW in my first playthrough. They nerfed it, but I still first try Malenia on my NG+ with Lion's Claw + Ultra Big Hammer. So everything is gucci my friends.

So, how is this for damage on a proper strength build?

I like the animation and theme, but always ended up avoiding it due to how funky all that posture breaking was

beautiful, finally usable

poise damage reduced more like removed

Rip

People complaining this was overpowered clearly forgot how busted doing 20k damage with Night and Flame was. Fun detected: fun removed.

Giga nerfed in 1.08, deals 12 posture damage now

Flame of the Redmans is giga nerfed in 1.08, went from dealing 40 poise damage to 12

I will admit that this was way too strong, but the nerf might have gone too far.

Going from 40 to 10 stance damage will quadruple the hits to stagger, meaning this is likely inferior to Flaming Strike from a damage perspective. It will barely stagger anymore, so most of its damage will come from the WA itself, which Flaming Strike does better via buffing.

For those looking for alternatives to this for a stagger build, the Glintblade Phalanx AoW still does 40 stagger damage, if slower and less spammable, and Square Off deals 40 stagger on its Heavy input. There are still options, just not as simple as rushing Caelid for the AoW.