Scaling in FromSoft games is always kind of a weird thing. While you might see Elden Ring's Meteorite Staff, which cannot be upgraded but starts off with S-rank Intelligence scaling, you'd assume that the staff would only get better the higher-level you got. And yet, the general wisdom is that it doesn't actually scale all that well (perhaps it's because the base Sorcery Scaling doesn't go up?)
Bloodborne's gearing and stats are simpler than most other Soulsborne games, and I think the broad intent of the game is that you pick between Strength, Skill, Bloodtinge, or Arcane and mainly level that one up (the latter two being a little trickier given that you need either special weapons or gems that you can't get until a good chunk through the game).
However, while putting Arcane gems in your weapons will remove their physical damage entirely, and thus make any Strength or Skill scaling do nothing, I've been playing around a little with my current character:
Using an Uncanny Burial Blade, and now with the Blade of Mercy as his secondary weapon, each comes with a little bonus arcane damage. Unlike a weapon swapped to Arcane thanks to a gem, though, this will combine with the normal physical damage it usually deals. The weapons have a bit of arcane scaling, and this actually means that you benefit from both stats.
That said, the arcane damage is very minor. That said, though, I've invested so little in Arcane that I don't know what the full potential for its damage is.
Generally, I've leveled up primarily Skill and a bit of Strength. This works ok for the Burial Blade, which gets ok scaling in Skill and middling scaling in Strength. The Blade of Mercy gets zero scaling in Strength, though, and S-tier scaling in Skill. It's a lighter weapon and strikes faster and for less stamina, though, so its actual damage number looks smaller, but I suspect that it's actually the harder-hitting weapon between the two (I still used the Blood Rock out of the Nightmare of Mensis on the Burial Blade because that weapon was the whole reason I made this character). (My original Skill-based character focused on the Burial Blade as her main weapon. Man, did I struggle through most of the game with the freaking Threaded Cane?)
At 50 Skill, I've started to hit the real diminishing returns on investing more points into Skill. My initial plan was to put more into Strength, but now I'm thinking I might put more into Arcane. Maybe this will account for just a tiny buff, but with the Burial Blade up at +10 and the Blade of Mercy at +9, the scaling is actually hitting a point where I'm seeing the damage numbers go up with another point of Arcane.
I really like Arcane conceptually in Bloodborne, but it's very reliant on getting good Blood Gems, and the guaranteed drops take a long time to show up (with the best really not coming until like, the Fishing Hamlet near the end of the DLC). I could farm Chalice Dungeons, but I... don't want to do that.
Indeed, both Arcane in Bloodborne and Advance in Lies of P are these playstyles that I really love on a conceptual level, but the games don't really do much with them. In Lies of P, there are at least two weapons (or blades, sepcifically) of each elemental damage type, but it's really just those six weapons you'll be using. (Though I think at least in Lies of P, you can also spec into... what is it, Motivity and Technique and benefit from the physical scaling as well. Hm, is it too early to revisit that game? I only played it last year. Surely I'll be diving into Control Resonant like crazy once it comes out, and I asusme that will be my obsession for the next several months.)
As much as I adore Bloodborne, it's really interesting to think what it might have been with a longer development cycle and the benefit of the next ten years of gameplay innovations. Like, what if Byrgenwerth had been a full area of the game rather than just a single building (I know that the Lecture Hall was originally meant to be part of it, which makes a ton of sense). And what if we'd gotten a more diverse roster of weapon options and even gameplay options. While the various Hunter Tools can function kinda like spells, it's not really a viable character concept like it is in Dark Souls or Elden Ring. But really, I'd mostly just like to see a version of Bloodborne that allows players who lean into one of these concepts or the other to have full support with what they can find in the game.
We don't need "spells" in the same way, though - it's a different era. But I think it would be cool to introduce various 19th century ideas, maybe getting some slightly steampunk options that allow for a different style of gameplay.
I don't know. Duskbloods set off my Bloodborne nostalgia, and truly if From wants to use some of the ideas developed there in some new single-player game, I'd be really eager to see.
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