The brutality of Dark Souls 3’s worlds and the beasts that roam there are matched only by its vicious new moves called weapon arts, which add variety and style to an already strong combat system: one moment I’m crushing enemies with the devastating weight of my greatsword, the next I’m turning the giant hunk of curved steel into a graceful propeller of destruction.
Executing these skills use up focus points (FP), the newly added blue bar below your HP and above your stamina that also acts as mana for casting spells and pyromancies. When your FP runs out, some weapon arts, like the aforementioned greatsword propeller (Exiled Greatsword – seriously, use it), start costing stamina instead – a sensible and acceptable trade-off. Certain other skills, like a lightning spear that lets you charge at enemies with an electrifying blast, let you complete the move without the elemental damage until you recover FP, so running out of FP isn’t necessarily urgent or mood-killing. It becomes far more important when you’re a spellcaster, because the amount of spell charges you have depends on FP, but the system is actually more generous than it is limiting. That’s because of a new reusable item called Ashen Estus.
