Listing my favorite weapons for every category

[Nifty]

I'm going to be keeping both PVE DLC Endgame Viability and PVP viability in mind here for this list.

Daggers:

1. Reduvia - no surprise the ranged bleed proc this dagger offers makes it viable for all content

2. Throwing daggers - while these are not great in pvp, they are exceptionally useful in PVE where you don't want to be making trades anyway ever under any circumstance.

Straight Swords:

1. Ornamental straight swords - increasingly since the dlc people have been learning the power of paired dual wield weapons so these deserve a re-visit

2. Sword of night and flame - yeah its a L2 stick but it's a powerful one that will carry you straight to lord of blood until you can get an upgrade in the dlc.

Greatswords:

1. Greatsword of solitude - great scaling, great weapon art, and a strong two hand talisman contender. Nothing flashy but flashy doesn't beat practical.

2. Blasphemous blade - yes its an L2 stick but it's the best one in the game for ganks, so you will never stop seeing this in invasions.

UGS:

1. Ancient meteor sword- typically UGS have average weapon arts but this one is S tier while still putting out the bonks.

2. Greatsword - given that it's just a hunk of metal the default UGS shouldn't be one of the strongest weapons in the game but it is due to high dmg, and a lightning fast crouching to standing attack.

Rapiers:

1. Carian sorcery sword: recently buffed so that not only is it S scaling the spell scaling isn't so low as to be useless when you consider mixup potential.

2. Antispur Rapier: fairly unique because it is one of the few weapons that can simultaneously proc two statuses in the game. Like 82 bleed 50 scarlet rot

Great thrusting swords:

1. Sword Lance- it's an A strength scaling great thrusting sword enough said. It's long, fast, deals good dmg and is fully customizable.

2. Bloody helice - one of the more fun arcane tools in your arsenal. Having a I frame weapon art that procs bleed and deals heavy poise dmg is very strong. Unlock to reverse dance towards target.

Curved swords:

1. Dancing blade of ranah - paired A scaling duel wield dex sword with a strong weapon art, exactly what you want in a weapon.

2. Falx - yep the dlc curved swords just win here with an anime run slice to prevent the large weakness small weapons have in elden ring, range disadvantage.

Great curved swords:

1. Blood hound - everyone knows this weapon because it's the first or second twinkling titenite weapon you unlock in Elden Ring it's also one of the best quality weapons in the game DLC tested.

2. Freyas Greatsword - it's the sword Lance of great curved swords. A scaling, and fully customizable, unfortunately its a late dlc item and slept on.

Katanas:

1. Sword of night - as someone who loves to punish bad arena habits with intelligent greathshield play this sword would be the perfect counter if people didn't just run around two handing the strongest weapons they can find.

2. Rivers of blood - definately not the institution it once was, but actually transcends being a L2 stick to kind of just being a good weapon

Twinblade:

1. Godskin peeler - one of the stronger pve twinblades with good dex scaling and reliable dmg with blue dancer plus added dmg on repeating strikes.

2. Gargoyles twinblade - hey its like a default version of godskin peeler for strength builds. Just saw someone using this yesterday and I can see why.

Axes:

1. Smithscript axe: high flexibility and high dmg with the r1s and r2s make this a pve menace with some limited arena applications.

2. Death knights twin axes - a strong paired weapon with an even better weapon art I've seen enough videos to know these are nuts.

Great axes:

1. Axe of godrick - from a pve perspective the L2 does insane dmg when scaled up with fragments to the point you will feel like the lord of all that is golden.

2. Deathknights axe - yeah its the two hand talisman version of the hand axes very frightening.

Hammers:

1. Ringed fingers - hard knockdown are very good in the dlc, for exploiting agressive npc activity, and they can be good in pvp as well assuming you can stop someone from running.

2. Flower stone gavel - from a dps perspective in the dlc debuffing lightning resist before committing to your highest dmg spells can only be a good thing

Flails:

1. Bastard stars - one of the better flail weapon arts due to how it makes up for its short range, also strong Intel scaling.

2. Knight rider flail - the fact that this is an A scaling dex weapon with base bleed makes it very interesting. Try putting spinning weapon on it and watch it shred.

Great hammer:

1. Smith hammer - 3k on a charged throw in the dlc is very good dmg. Pvp good luck getting someone to stand still but it could happen.

2. Great stars - interacts well with heavy infushions and magic infusions while having base bleed build up and high poise dmg.

Colossal:

1. Axe of Godfrey- buffed with new talisman interactions the dmg in dlc scaling is one of a kind, and the tricky r2's will make this arena viable.

2. Giant smasher - king of the AR with 2k base in the dlc, never before has a big stone hammer so easily slayed Bayle the king of dragons. (Relatively speaking)

Spears:

1. Swift spear - crazy r1 chains, huge dex scaling, lots of talisman stacking, probably the best spear in the game

2. Bloodfiends fork - not glamorous but a fully customizable bleed stick is a fully customizable bleed stick. What else do you want?

Great spears:

1. Spear of the impailer - it's the new milania sword, mash L2 and hope the crazy bs carries you.

2. Mogs spear - Neel! Neel!! Neel!!!!!

Halberd:

1. Knightrider glave - s strength scaling and fully customizable.

2. Banished knights halberd - this is my claymore although claymore is also claymore. Those 1 handed r1 pokes are perfect for pvp or pve.

Reapers:

1. Obsidian reaper : basically rivers of blood for scythe users so you also ignore 30% shield block while procing status

2. Grave reaper: fully customizable and highest ar of the class by a lot it's almost embarrassing.

Whips:

1. Tooth whip - poison proc and the only proper weapon art in the entire weapon class making this an auto include is your dual wield set up

2. Hallows petal whip - it's like tooth whip but for bleed and you can stick blood hound step on it. I suggest you use both.

Hand to hand:

1. Poison hand - a arcane scaling and instant deadly poison proc with weapon art that you can then pop using a different weapon art to get all your dmg at once.

2. Veterans Prosthesis- I won't lie I like this weapon, good weapon art solid quality scaling and high range for punch punch.

Claw:

1. Claws of knight - kind of puts all other claws to shame with ranged dmg, bleed dmg, and dmg dmg.

2. Venomous fang - currently scales an A in strength while procing deadly poison, and fully customizable to include new poison popping kick.

I'm gonna save the new dlc weapon categories for a comment because this took a while to go through.

[Zoid13]

Originally posted by Nifty:

2. Mogs spear - Neel! Neel!! Neel!!!!!

Nihil*

[Nifty]

Shields:

1. Finger print shield - shield crash lightning infused on a quality build isn't only just a block slab it's a dmg dealer

2. Carian thrusting shield - that L2 combo is super nasty and flexible at 10 pounds.

Martial arts:

1. Footwork - due to the 10% buff on normals with shattered stone there isn't much reason to not use this one and then customize with ash of choice.

Reverse blades:

1. Default blades - very few reasons not to use the normal blades because they overperform on AR for just 2 pounds. Keep in mind a dagger is 1.5

Light greatsword

1. Renalla blades - sure you need a 40/40 build but these paired swords put in the work and have a decent weapon art to boot.

Perfumes:

1. Fire - now that the perfume glitch has be fixed things like proper dex scaling and an easy to buff element actually matter.

Bows:

Bone bow - best in class quality scaling (not saying much) and the best bow weapon art in the game.

Claws:

Beast claw - the normal beast claws win out over bear claws because of the flexibility and infushion choices.