The Dexterity Cheatsheet
Was inspired by this video. which asked the question; 'what does Dexterity have as a build niche?'. Hence, decided to come up with a easy reference for all the reasons to play a dex-character.
At its most basic, Dex gives the following...
1. Attack Power for weapons with Dex scaling 2. Cast speed 3. Reduces fall damage 4. Harder to fall-off horseback
Bonuses 3+4 are not relevant in most combat scenarios, and should not be taken into account for buildmaking.
Weapon Infusions
Dexterity has 2 infusions; [Keen] and [Lightning].
Keen - the physical infusion. Raises weapon AR scaling with Dex, also scales damage on certain Weapon Skills.
Lightning - The elemental counterpart to Keen. In PvP, lightning is advantaged over other elemental damage - as it tends to be the lowest defense on player characters.
Lightning is also affected by environment. Wet targets (eg. in rain) have reduced lightning mitigation. Hiting water with lightning causes an 'explosion' that deals an burst of AOE damage.
However, elemental infused weapons cannot be buffed by most sources. Lightning Infusion also splits damage between physical and lightning; hence mitigated by both the enemy's physical and lightning defenses.
Cold - Adds magic damage, int scaling and Frostbite status. Also retains more of a weapon's physical scaling than other caster infusions. Hence, on a innately dex-scaling weapon - Cold will scale well from both Int and Dex; hybrids take note.
Weapon Skills/Arts
Damage for Weapon Skills is very complex.
In general - skills that swing the weapon care about the weapon's attack rating (AR). Skills that shoot projectiles care about stats. (A detailed explanation can be found in this video)
Listed here are Weapon Skills of specific Keen/Lightning affinity. There are many excellent 'general use' Weapon Arts, just not innately dex-focused.
Thunderbolt Lightning affinity, bullet art. The infamous spam tool of arena duels; effectively gives ranged magic without needing to build a caster and while using any weapon. Lightning Slash Enhanced hit. Adds a fixed lightning damage buff to your weapon regardless of whether it lands. 'Elemental Slash' type weapon arts are one of the few ways to buff weapons with elemental infusions. Beast Roar Keen affinity, bullet art. Another infamous ranged spam, this time a physical projectile. As with Thunderbolt, effectively gives access to ranged on any weapon.
Cast Speed
"Shortens the animation when casting spells"
This is a complex stat, do note that...
This is based on specific breakpoints unique to each spell, there is no global %cast speed modifier. In general, 70 Dex is the cap for cast speed. Items that add Cast Speed (eg. Radagon's Icon) add 30 virtual dexterity (vdex), treating your cast speed as if you had +30 Dex.
Hence, if you plan to make a dex-caster hybrid - spell choice and your dex-int/fth split affects how much of an impact cast speed will make.
Consumables
"Consumables with scaling in Dexterity"
Throwing Knives (All) - Exceptional dex scaling on Fan Daggers (A) and Kukri (S). Others like Poisonbone Dart have significant scaling in both Dex + Arc.
Throwing Pots (Lightning) - 2 variants, Lightning Pot and Dragonbolt Pot.
Spark Aromatic - Damaging perfume, unusual in having fire damage while being dex scaling.
Noteworthy Weapons
This is not a list of best weapons, but weapons that are noteworthy within each class for dex characters.
Many weapon classes such as Halberds have broadly good movesets and can be scaled in many ways. Similarly, a weapon can be good purely off its moveset, even if the numbers are not the most optimal.
Dagger - Misericorde, Scorpion's Stinger, Celebrant's Sickle, Bloodstained Dagger, Great Knife Dex friendly weapon class in general. Misericorde is a critical-hit tool with high AR on Lightning, it also has the longest reach in class. Though in practice, this means little Scorpion's has innate rot and a dex bias scaling. Celebrant's has sheild pierce and high AR. Bloodstained and Greatknife are both regular weapons with innate bleed, while also scaling well with dex. However, do note that unless you started as a Bandit, these weapons are hard to acquire.
Straight Sword - Warhawk Talon, Noble's Slender Sword Among regular straight swords, these 2 have a bias toward dex scaling. The difference in reach and AR between regular straight swords is quite minor. Broadswords etc. are all very useable.
Greatsword - Flamberge Of the regular weapons, Flamberge is the only one with a distinct dex bias. Most other Greatswords have a Str bias, though many (eg. Claymore, Knight's Greatsword) are very playable on dex.
Colossal Sword UGS - Zweihander, Greatsword, Godslayer Greatsword For regular weapons, Zweihander has the lowest str req and scales best on Keen. Greatsword has higher str req, but has more AR on Lightning. Godslayer has faster standard attacks and is a rare source of dex-scaling fire damage.
Thrusting Sword - Cleanrot's Knight's Sword, Estoc, Antspur Rapier A dex-biased class overall, in general... Cleanrot's has longest reach and most AR at lower dex levels. Estoc has the most AR at dex softcap 80. Antspur has a 'Scarlet Rot' status while being infusable.
Heavy Thrusting Sword - Dragon King's Cragblade Longest weapon in class, innate lightning damage, has very high dex req. (37). HTS in general is a dex-biased weapon class, any of the regular options are also good.
Curved Sword - Bandit's Curved Swords Only weapon in class with a clear dex bias. Shamshir and Scavenger's are also good options.
Curved Greatsword - Bloodhound's Fang Bloodhound Fang scales very well to dex and is obtainable early. Dismounter is longest in class and infusable, but is drop-only.
Katana - Uchigatana, Nagakiba All weapons in this class (except Meteoric Ore Blade) are dex focused. Nagakiba has the longest reach by a significant margin, Uchigatana has the most AR for both Keen and Lightning. In short; Uchi for damage over reach, Naga for reach over damage. The Hand of Malenia is also noticeable longer than other katanas but still falls short of the Nagakiba. It is also not infusable.
Halberd - Guardian's Swordspear Unusual in having mostly sweep and slash moves. Highest AR in class on Keen, the 'big numbers stick'. Its Lightning infusion is noticeably worse than Keen for some reason, also has high str req. (16) for a dex weapon. Remainder of the Halberds (beside Gargoyle and Nightrider) can all be built toward Dex. Here, Banished Knight's Halberd tends to be the jack-of-all trades in AR and moveset.
Spear - Cross Naginata, Bolt of Gransax Of the regular spears, Naginata has innate bleed and dex scaling bias. Unusual in having a slashing attack-chain by defqult. Being a spear, the min-max setup is to dual wield and ignore the 'core-moveset'. But if you already knew that, you dont need to read this post. Bolt of Gransax; unique weapon with exceptional range (2nd highest) and innate lightning damage. Has very high dex req. (40), scales VERY poorly with str despite having 20 str req.
Greatspear - Lance, Treespear Lance is the only regular weapon in class. Treespear scales very well to dex (physical damage only) and has innate holy damage, it also one of the rare buffable weapons with an innate element. Vyke's War Spear scales well to dex, but is mostly a status weapon for pvp, hence its AR is not generally a consideration.
Reaper - Scythe, Grave Scythe The Scythe has longer reach, dex bias on Keen and features a unique double heavy attack. Grave Scythe has more AR in all cases except 80 dex + Keen. However, it has higher str req. and weight. Worth noting; is that Grave Scythe is rare drop. While the Scythe is a guaranteed drop and can be found early.
Hammer - Monk's Flamemace A str biased class in general. Monk's is the only regular hammer with a dex bias, it is drop only. The default Hammer does not have any dex bias, but has great range and moveset. It is likely a better choice than the Monk's even for dex builds.
Greathammer - None A very str-biased class, no standouts for dex.
Axe - Forked Hatchet Only weapon in class with a dex bias. However, it makes a poor weapon due to low range and damage. A dex weapon by technicality not practicality.
Greataxe - Butchering Knife Only weapon in class with a dex bias, highest AR on Keen. However, Lightning infusion narrows the AR gap for many of the regular Greataxes. Worth noting, as the Butchering Knife has very short heavy attacks.
Colossal Weapons - Duelist Greataxe Class with overwhelming str bias. Both the regular Duelist Greataxe and Rotted variant are the only weapons in class with dex bias. However, they suffer from low AR and have a significant str req. Another "dex weapon by technicality".
Whips - Urumi Exceptional dex scaling, has unique charged heavy attack with great precision and reach. All other whips also have a dex bias (except Giant's Braid). Fists - Katar Only fist with piercing damage and a dex bias. Has slightly longer reach than most.
Claws - Raptor's Talons, Venomous Fang This is a status focused class. Raptor's is another case of a weapon that technically has a dex bias, but this does not make it a good weapon. Venomous Fang is the only infusable weapon with innate poison status, it also has very high base AR.
Twinblades - Godskin Peeler Weapon class predominantely used for statuses. Peeler has a dex-bias relative to other twinblades, it also features a distinct moveset.
STARTING CLASS
Vagabond - A favourite shell for PvP characters. While it may not seem like a dex starter, this class saves a ton on stats for defense. This allows one to start with general defensive base and build dex as you see fit. Most weapons also have some str req. so the base str is also rarely wasted.
Samurai - 2nd highest dex, while having a good spread of hp, endurance and str. Wastes no points for 'caster' stats, good option for full martial dex characters.
Prisoner - Exceptional dex and int, very low base faith. Great starter for that specific hybrid stat combination.
Warrior - Highest dex of all starter classes. That said, its often less efficient in the long run (vs. Vagabond/Samurai) due to having an unusual stat distribution (few use cases for having extra Mind + Int + Arc).
Bandit - High Dex + Arc. Similar to Warrior in being less effecient for pure dex due having odd 'spare stats'.
In short, Vagabond/Samurai will be your go-to for generalist dex characters. The remainders are options provided you have a specific dex hybrid in mind. When in doubt, use the Elden Ring build planner here.
Thanks and Credits
Chrightt and his community for providing much of the in-depth math this post is based on. Rorydobson for the Elden Ring build planner.