Best PvE weapons? (2021)

[Jekko]

Looking around the (past) forums there seems to be a consensus on the pike/spear, I don't have hard numbers but from personal use it doesn't seem that good, low penetration, have to aim carefully and mobs reach you anyway. On the other hand I found the 2 handed sword to greatly outperform everything, high damage/penetration/durability and always hits with the cleave.

Any veterans with more insight? :)

[Paprika]

2h sword is mandatory, but i liked new katana a lot. it performs better than other choices now. combos take practice, but it's very good for every situation now.

[lemurs2]

1H axe for me, does what I need and keeps a hand free for torch or shield.

[Solomon Hawk]

Best PVE weapon is the one you learn how to use. Each weapon has a strength and weakness. Learn them to your advantage.
Personally, I've been leaning on Javelins and shield, preferring not to throw one unless I have a spare.

[Agent Chieftain]

Honestly, I switch between various weapons, depending on the enemy.

But the most versatile is probably Axe + Shield. Has a bit of everything. Good damage, good range with the heavy attack, good armor pen on some axes, bleed status and knockdown, and the heavy combo chain is resistant to being interrupted. You can win just about any fight with this combo, with varying degrees of ease.

Daggers are really good for bleed vulnerable enemies that don't have a huge gaps in their offense. Light attack into Heavy attack into dodge, then rinse and repeat. You can kill a lot of bosses this way easily, without taking a single hit.

[Duke Flapjack]

I'm a big fan of sword and board. In PvE, though, there doesn't seem to be any weapons that are gold ALL the time. Use whatever you like the most, IMO.

[Paprika]

i liked new short swords too. i didnt like old options, maybe argossean. but steel one looks great now.

[Death2Gnomes]

Originally posted by Paprika:

i liked new short swords too. i didnt like old options, maybe argossean. but steel one looks great now.

Star Metal SS's do 56 damage hot off the anvil.

[Zeel Ara]

There's a lot of really good PvE options. None of them are the best in all circumstances. I'd say the only ones to avoid would be spear, one hand mace, and the new greataxe. Everything else has strong use cases.

Best all-round would probably be axe+shield and greatsword.

[Paprika]

Originally posted by Death2Gnomes:

Originally posted by Paprika:

i liked new short swords too. i didnt like old options, maybe argossean. but steel one looks great now.

Star Metal SS's do 56 damage hot off the anvil.

just crafted hardened steel short sword. with thrall and weapon mod it's 60. better than i imagined.

[Steinaar]

It's always fun to use a pike, super long reach, and just spam left click vs enemies before they can get into reach of hitting you. The pike has a low level hit stun effect that allows you to keep spamming left click and keeping the enemy at bay. For PvE it's pretty cheesy for sure, my favorite not so much. I has no favorites but I wanted to make you aware of such since nobody mentioned the pike yet. In the end all weapons will be named here and you'll be in the same boat as when you started.

[Bloodwest]

Greatsword feels like the most versatile weapon but honestly everything's pretty much situational. Axes offer one of if not the best damage for their class but penetration is non-existent which may become a dealbreaker against some serious enemies. If you can afford having companions (e.g. players, thralls), warhammer is the best at lowering defenses while other party members could go for something more damaging (e.g. aforementioned GSs, Axes). Daggers are awesome for wearing down the bosses by stacking tons of bleeding debuffs. Not a fan of single-handed weapon though, weaker damage for utility in offhand sounds not very interesting as I can simply switch to 2-handed once I spot hostiles. Give the torch to your thrall and let yourself have some fun :)

[Agent Chieftain]

Originally posted by Bloodwest:

Axes offer one of if not the best damage for their class but penetration is non-existent

2 of the 3 best axes in the game have armor penetration. Ancient Lemurian and Yog's Touch. Yog's touch actually has comparable armor penetration to a mace. And the Ancient Lemurian definitely gets my vote for the best all-rounder, especially since it's really easy to just sprint for the crafting recipe.

[TinkerBobV8]

In my experience, if you don't have to worry about players at all, axe and short sword are my go to. the axe has really good combos and status affects. the heavy attack is great for closing distance fast and dealing lots of damage.

the short sword is great for raw damage and DPS. it doesn't have an attack cool down, similar to pike, and chaining it with a heavy attack does like 7 attacks in less than a second. If you hit first in 90% of 1v1 encounters with AI, not immune to stun, you will come out unscathed and victorious really fast.

[Duke Flapjack]

Well, if you use Valhalla archery bows are pretty killer weapons (pun intended). I like bows quite a bit, but in vanilla they certainly didn't have the stopping power they probably should.

[★ Luna ★]

The predatory blade from killing the Brute in the Unnamed City. Base stats are 97 damage, 9% Armour penetration, 1350 durability. It only does damage with light attacks, heavy attack is only 1%