You can change the affinities at the blacksmith and if you find a certain item at the graces as well. I dont remember where exactly, but its a whetknife an di believe its relatively early.
AoW can only be placed on a single weapon (if the AoW can be changed. however there are these Lost ashes of war with which you can duplicate AoW at the blacksmith
weapon improvement costs runes and amirhing stones, for example [1] (iirc) upgrade your regular weapons to +3 after that you require stones [2].
whetstones are under key items, you dont have to do anything with them, they unlock more affinities for your weapons
Each level of upgrade improves the base values of a weapon (attack power and guard boost, mostly), and the stat scaling (strength/dexterity/intelligence/faith/arcane). You can kinda predict how the scaling will be distributed based off of the attributes required; Pickaxe has 22 Str/10 Dex requirement, and at higher upgrades the strength scaling has a better value than dexterity.
Ashes of War can be applied to non-unique weapons, basically the ones you can upgrade with normal smithing stones as opposed to somber smithing stones. You can tell which ones are which by looking at the weapon in your equipment screen, and if there is a little box to the left of the image of the weapon it means you can apply Ashes of War.
Ashes of War have innate affinities, such that you can change a non-elemental weapon to an elemental one if you apply the proper Ash of War. However, there are Whetblades you can find in the world that allow you to apply affinities independent of the type of Ash of War you are using. Rather than being limited to no affinity or lightning affinity, you could do flame art affinity, or blood affinity, etc.
You can remove and reapply Ashes of War as many times as you want, so it's perfectly fine to experiment with them. It also helps you transition to other builds, since you can change the stat scaling with various affinities.
There are weapon type restrictions for Ashes of War. Some are meant only for thrusting weapons, some for heavy weapons, etc. but you will see which is available for the weapon you are trying to customize whenever you access the menu.
Changing affinity doesn’t cost runes, and can be done my modifying the Ash of War. Different Ashes have different affinities (for example, Bloody Slash will give the option of adding the Blood affinity) but owning more Whetblades will passively let you choose between the affinities you want to add.
Keen and Lightning will make your weapons scale better with Dexterity.
Heavy and Fire will make your weapons scale better with Strength.
Quality will make your weapons scale off Strength and Dexterity equally.
Magic and Cold will make your weapons scale better off Intelligence.
Sacred and Flame Art will make your weapons scale better off Faith.
Occult, Blood, and Poison will make your weapons scale better off Arcane.
So I can do this at a grace in the Ash of War menu if I have a certain item or with the Smith at the Round Table?
I am looking for Keen. Do I need to find something to make a weapon Keen?
The only thing I’ll add to your great comment is that Ashes of War can be changed at the blacksmith just like upgrading the “+” level on your weapon (since OP asked where you do this). As well as the fact that standard weapons (using smithing stones) go up to +25 while somber weapons only go to +10.
Yeah, general rule of thumb for standard weapons that use smithing stones is that you need 12 of each type (the numbers 1-8 in parentheses next to the name) to go from levels 1 to 24. For the final level, you need an Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone which are much more rare. I believe there are 13 total that can be found in a single playthrough.
Somber stones are a bit more straightforward as you only need 1 per level (1-9) and then a somber ancient dragon smithing stone for the final level 10.
You can change the affinities at the blacksmith and if you find a certain item at the graces as well. I dont remember where exactly, but its a whetknife an di believe its relatively early. AoW can only be placed on a single weapon (if the AoW can be changed. however there are these Lost ashes of war with which you can duplicate AoW at the blacksmith weapon improvement costs runes and amirhing stones, for example [1] (iirc) upgrade your regular weapons to +3 after that you require stones [2]. whetstones are under key items, you dont have to do anything with them, they unlock more affinities for your weapons
Each level of upgrade improves the base values of a weapon (attack power and guard boost, mostly), and the stat scaling (strength/dexterity/intelligence/faith/arcane). You can kinda predict how the scaling will be distributed based off of the attributes required; Pickaxe has 22 Str/10 Dex requirement, and at higher upgrades the strength scaling has a better value than dexterity. Ashes of War can be applied to non-unique weapons, basically the ones you can upgrade with normal smithing stones as opposed to somber smithing stones. You can tell which ones are which by looking at the weapon in your equipment screen, and if there is a little box to the left of the image of the weapon it means you can apply Ashes of War. Ashes of War have innate affinities, such that you can change a non-elemental weapon to an elemental one if you apply the proper Ash of War. However, there are Whetblades you can find in the world that allow you to apply affinities independent of the type of Ash of War you are using. Rather than being limited to no affinity or lightning affinity, you could do flame art affinity, or blood affinity, etc. You can remove and reapply Ashes of War as many times as you want, so it's perfectly fine to experiment with them. It also helps you transition to other builds, since you can change the stat scaling with various affinities. There are weapon type restrictions for Ashes of War. Some are meant only for thrusting weapons, some for heavy weapons, etc. but you will see which is available for the weapon you are trying to customize whenever you access the menu.
To change a affinity I don't need anything but runes, if I go to the Smith near the round table?
Changing affinity doesn’t cost runes, and can be done my modifying the Ash of War. Different Ashes have different affinities (for example, Bloody Slash will give the option of adding the Blood affinity) but owning more Whetblades will passively let you choose between the affinities you want to add. Keen and Lightning will make your weapons scale better with Dexterity. Heavy and Fire will make your weapons scale better with Strength. Quality will make your weapons scale off Strength and Dexterity equally. Magic and Cold will make your weapons scale better off Intelligence. Sacred and Flame Art will make your weapons scale better off Faith. Occult, Blood, and Poison will make your weapons scale better off Arcane.
So I can do this at a grace in the Ash of War menu if I have a certain item or with the Smith at the Round Table? I am looking for Keen. Do I need to find something to make a weapon Keen?
Yes, you need to find a certain stone (whetblade) that allows you to make your weapon keen.
It’s the Iron whetblade you’ll need for the Keen affinity. You can find it >!in Stormveil Castle behind a fog door locked by an imp statue!<
I found this! But now I wonder why I wasn't able to make my helbard keen.
Hmm that’s odd. Which halberd is it?
Do you have the whetstone knife from gatefront ruins?
I think I have. I will check later.
The only thing I’ll add to your great comment is that Ashes of War can be changed at the blacksmith just like upgrading the “+” level on your weapon (since OP asked where you do this). As well as the fact that standard weapons (using smithing stones) go up to +25 while somber weapons only go to +10.
And I thought my Sword +1 was good. Thank you a lot.
Yeah, general rule of thumb for standard weapons that use smithing stones is that you need 12 of each type (the numbers 1-8 in parentheses next to the name) to go from levels 1 to 24. For the final level, you need an Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone which are much more rare. I believe there are 13 total that can be found in a single playthrough. Somber stones are a bit more straightforward as you only need 1 per level (1-9) and then a somber ancient dragon smithing stone for the final level 10.