Best/great weapons in each category (+ notable shields), and what makes them so.

A brief guide to the best weapons in each weapon category, or at least the great choices in each category if there is no best. Plus, some info on the notable shields in the game. Applies to end-game NG+7 onwards PVE primarily.

Introduction

Greetings, chosen undead! My name’s Neonetik! Well, not really, if it was, I’d have become hollow a long time ago. Anyway, welcome to my guide to some of the best (or at least great) weapons within Dark Souls. Dark Souls is one of my favorite games of all time, and after over half a thousand hours of playing, and probably at least a hundred or two of studying it through wikis, videos, online discussions, and other such things, I figure it’s probably a good time to make something like this, or a good a time as any, at least. Dark Souls has an absolute boatload of weapons, and though they all have their own certain unique qualities, there are several options that stand out amongst the crowd as being especially good choices. This guide will go through and highlight some of the best choices of weapons and shields available to you as a player in each weapon category, and what makes them so great.

I hate to be rude, but please, for the love of Gwyn, read the "Vital notes" section before leaving a comment. It gives important context to the choices listed in this guide. I even asked nicely by writing "PLEASE READ THIS" in all caps, so it wouldn't be missed.

Oh, and of course, full credit to all the people responsible for all the images I'm about to use, most of which are impossible to find online and credit properly, except for TG Weaver!

And finally, thank you all so much for the various awards and stuff! I do like buying cosmetic items on Steam with the points I get from them, so just know that your support is much appreciated! I'm just glad you found my work helpful.

Neonundead away!

Vital notes about the information in this guide (PLEASE READ THIS!)

• When I am talking about the effectiveness of a weapon relative to others, I’m assuming that the player has reasonably equal stats (though primarily, this applies to strength and dexterity), and will be looking at weapons that excel amongst the others given this factor, not specifically at weapons that are only better if you only chose to focus on levelling a single stat. I’m not discussing which weapons are better for certain builds, I’m talking about which ones are just better as a whole. As such, please keep this in mind before leaving a comment saying “BUT “X” WEAPON IS BETTER THAN “Y” IF YOU HAVE A PURE “Z” BUILD!”, maybe so, but that’s not the point of this guide, though I may make brief comments about build-specific weapons if I feel they belong.
  
  
• I’m also assuming that every weapon is working at its highest potential, that is to say, it’s been upgraded to max down the standard path, and its best possible scaling is being taken into account. This also applies to the game itself, and I will primarily be speaking about effectiveness in New Game Plus 7, which is the point where enemy health and damage stops increasing. This guide is centered on a PVE (player vs environment) experience.
  
  
• Not every category has a specific “best” weapon, and in this situation, I’ll just describe the reasons why the numerous options are all equally good.
  
  
• Keep note, the order these weapons are listed in each list has NO impact on their perceived quality. I am purely separating the "best" from all others using the BOLD font. That's it.
  
  
• A weapon being "bad" doesn't mean you can't beat the game with it, but it does mean that in general, there is an alternative choice which objectively outclasses it in most situations, if not all. I see this a lot, where a common complaint is "YOU SAID X WEAPON IS BAD BUT I BEAT THE GAME WITH IT SO IT'S NOT!". Bad and good are relative terms, and as such, when compared to other choices, certain things ARE bad, which may include things you enjoy. That doesn't mean you can't rock em if you want, but it does mean that you are disadvantaging yourself by doing so. Not that I'm saying any weapon that isn't the best is bad, only some, as even "worse" weapons can still have totally unique qualities that make em worth using depending on the situation. I'm just clarifying things.
  
  
• If you feel like I’ve made an error, or that another weapon belongs in a section, I highly encourage leaving a comment! I read and respond to most comments left for me, and if your reasoning is sound, I’m more than happy to update this guide and make it the best it can be. Do keep in mind though, I’ll be looking for an explanation as to why it’s at least on near-equal grounds to the “best” option. If it has several large downsides that the “best” option doesn’t (EG, being near equal in terms of power, but weighing twice as much), then it’s likely not going to be put on this list.
  
  
• At times, I will mention that a weapon doesn't make the list because it cannot be buffed. This is what the developers intended, but TECHNICALLY, you can buff any weapon using a very specific force buff/spell swap glitch, which has some pretty insane results. However, this is rather confusing to do and required specific location placement and stuff, so I'm just sort of ignoring it's existence, I suppose. That being said, this is good to know, and can be fun. See here for an example.
  https://youtu.be/cfMBxU542OE
  
  
• In addition, it’s important to remember that this is a videogame, and primarily is about having fun. I’m not here to ♥♥♥♥-talk the weapons you enjoy using (well, with ONE exception). If you like something, keep on rocking it. I’m just here to try and bring some objectivity into the matter of which weapons you should probably be using if you want to be as effective as possible (though there are so many variables in Dark Souls, it can be difficult to do this). There are several Dark Souls wikis which go into some heavy detail as to exact damage numbers and stuff depending on all situations. I’ll keep things a little simpler here, but I encourage everyone to do their own research as well.
  
  
• If you want some extremely in-depth weapon info, beyond what the 3 main wiki's can offer, I suggest the following documents and websites. Some of the data is a bit inconsistent with other bits from other websites, but in general, this presents a LOT of useful info.
  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1efEAz6ofer9W-kNd4g1k9Uqt8bBEHrSVWgN4paznSAc/edit#gid=480866152
  
  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KukblWL61We64-gNIyaAShga9h8RTXYmyFs98eQhY4E/edit#gid=1949985688
  
  
• Each category also contains a list of all the weapons available in that category. The weapons in BOLD are the best in that class of weapons.
  
  We’ll start from the smaller weapon categories, and work our way up to the big boys. So, without further ado...

Fists

Available weapons:

• Caestus
  
• Claw
  
• Dark Hand
  
• Dragon Bone Fist

:^(

No, really, there’s not much point to using any of these. The Caestus is light and can be swung all day, The Claw is a bit heavier, a little stronger, and has bleed, and the Dark Hand can be useful for trolling people online/getting some extra humanity from NPCs, but compared to other weapons, these are all relatively weak options. They aren’t totally awful, don’t get me wrong, and being fist weapons, gain extra damage from the thorn gauntlets, and considering their weight and speed of attack, can do some decent damage, but the lack of range, low poise damage, and relatively low overall damage compared to bigger weapons, makes them not really all that flash. Plus, the initial hit is much slower than you would expect, with a somewhat long wind up, which really hurts these weapons. At best, I can recommend the Caestus as a faster secondary weapon to supplement your main weapon in the event that you think some faster strikes would help, though this is ONLY if you can't handle the weight of something heavier, but in general, you’ll wanna be using something a bit bigger. The Claw is ok, and has a cool rolling attack, but honestly you might as well just use the Bandit's Knife instead. It's great that they exist though, and they do fill a (very small) niche, being so light and all. The Dragon Bone Fist however, is especially garbage, thanks to its relatively high weight, but at least it is funny to use with its satisfying knockdown effect.

Daggers

Available weapons:

• Bandit's Knife
  
• Dagger (yes, seriously)
  
• Parrying Dagger (has some usage though)
  
• Dark Silver Tracer
  
• Ghost Blade
  
• Priscilla's Dagger

Much like the fist weapons, if you can spare some weight, you’re usually better off going for something with a bit more punch, since these have low regular/poise damage per hit. Honestly, most of these kinda suck. The Ghost Blade, Priscilla’s Dagger, and Parrying Dagger all are very weak, and the Dark Silver Tracer is kind of difficult to be utilized well and is also weak. At least the Parrying Dagger has a unique quality to it with its extended parrying window and lighter weight than shields that do the same, and it can be put into some specific builds (like the Smough's Hammer example I list later on). However, 2 options do stand out a bit more.

Firstly, the Bandit’s Knife is a well-regarded dagger, and is often used by people with a Dex-build. It has fast attacks, is pretty big for a dagger (but really, is still pretty small), has a good critical attack multiplier, low weight, and has decent bleed build-up and damage. If you like backstabs, ripostes, looking cool and bleeding enemies, this is a great choice, though the moveset is pretty boring and lacks variety.

Alternatively, I’m also going to praise the regular, default Dagger. It’s not quite as damaging as the Bandit’s Knife (it's only a little stronger than the Parrying Dagger), and lacks the bleed, but it’s got faster attacks (fastest R1-spam in the game, actually), meaning it benefits more from buffs (which give a flat damage increase), it has a better moveset (it has thrusts, unlike the Bandit’s Knife), and it weighs only half the amount (at 0.5 instead of 1). A lot of people who don't study the in-depth stats/mechanics of the game seem to think that things like the basic, normal Dagger/Long Sword/Halberd/Hand Axe or whatever must be bad weapons compared to super crazy boss-tier gear, but in reality, oftentimes, the are some of the absolute best in the game. Hopefully this guide helps educate people a little more so this assumption isn't as prevalent.

Both these daggers can be buffed, which can’t be said for all the daggers (sorry Dark Silver Tracer, close, but no cigar), and both can work well as secondary weapons and are still effective against enemies without armor. Though as I mentioned before, getting up to NG+7 makes their low damage a bit more scary. That said, for general usage, the Bandit’s Knife will do you better. Check em out if you want a low-weight option.

Whips

Available weapons:

• Notched Whip (sort of?)
  
• Whip (like, also sort of?)
  
• Guardian Tail

They’re ♥♥♥♥.

The Notched Whip is... well, I call it the best, due to causing bleed and only being a little weaker than the regular whip (190 vs 200 damage before scaling), whilst still being light, but it’s still ♥♥♥♥, and you're not going to get most enemies to bleed anyway with whips, due to just how slow and trash whips are, so, like, maybe the plain old Whip is the best, but, really, like... yeah.

At least they can’t be parried, though they can’t backstab or riposte either, and they have terrible movesets. The Guardian's tail does poison build up and can be buffed with the rotten pine resin, but it's not exactly like that's easy to inflict with a whip, though, again, it can't be parried, so maybe you could possibly incorporate it into some sort of poison themed build along with the Large Club in some way, but I can't really think of any way that would be any more effective than just using another better weapon, especially since the 2H rolling attack of the Large Club can't be parried anyway. I guess MAYBE if you need a light secondary weapon that you can use against parry-spammers to finish building up the very last part of some bleed/poison that you've mostly done with another weapon, then it could possibly be a decent option in that very specific circumstance, but, frankly... eh.

Don’t use whips.

Thrusting Swords

Available weapons:

• Estoc
  
• Rapier
  
• Ricard's Rapier
  
• Mail Breaker (fantastic secondary though)
  
• Velka's Rapier

Oh thank god. No more whips. Ok, thrusting swords. Right. Most of these are actually pretty ok! It’s quite difficult to pick out a “best” option here. All are reasonably quick, and can attack from behind a shield. The Mail Breaker is fantastic for the weight, being the lightest at just 0.5 units, but it's short, weak, and isn't a good primary, though it can be a fantastic secondary weapon. Velka's Rapier has a decent moveset, but it can't be buffed and deals split damage. But hey, the other 3 options? Solid.

The Estoc has the best range and a moveset with more variety, (R2’s do a slash instead of a thrust), plus, it does a tad bit more stamina damage. Solid, though it is just a fraction slower than the normal Rapier.

The Rapier has fantastic critical damage (backstabs, ripostes), low weight, again, solid, though a bit limited in moveset.

Ricard’s Rapier has fantastically fast R2 attacks (pressing R2 does 2 quick thrusts, and pressing it again does 4 more, all of which are counted as singular hits, so buffs do well with it). Stylish as ♥♥♥♥.

Anyway, yeah, fair few good options here. I personally enjoy the Richard’s Rapier due to style, and generally use the Estoc if I’m looking to be effective, but if you just like good criticals, then the basic Rapier may be for you.

Curved Swords

Available weapons:

• Painting Guardian Sword
  
• Falchion (Hesitant exclusion)
  
• Shotel (Hesitant exclusion)
  
• Gold Tracer (Hesitant exclusion)
  
• Quelaag's Fury Sword
  
• Jagged Ghost Blade
  
• Scimitar

There’s some pretty fierce competition between these curvy cutlasses. You can go ahead and forget about the Jagged Ghost Blade and the Scimitar. These are basically worthless compared to the other options (both reasonably weak). Quelaag's Fury Sword is GREAT against many enemies who are weak to fire, but otherwise suffers due to split damage reasons. All the others have decent enough value, but some are generally more useful than others. That said, I want to bring some attention to 3 of the non "best" options.

Sick and tired of enemies that hide behind their shields? Then you want the Shotel, purely because the R2 attacks complete bypass shields. Honestly it’s kind of insane. To be honest, this may not belong on this list. It’s not that strong, but it absolutely is useful, especially in PVP. Not a main weapon, but a glorious secondary to be sure. What the hell. I'll allow it. The Gold Tracer is also nice. It has a decent range, high attack power, and does especially high build bleed up, but sadly can’t be buffed. The Falchion is one of the game’s trademark meme weapons. You hear someone ♥♥♥♥-talking another person about R1 spamming? They were probably using the Falchion. Can’t blame em, ♥♥♥♥’s effective. While not as powerful as something like the Gold Tracer (without buffs anyway), it’s still good, and swings fast and has the range to hit targets a little more reliably. Great for PVP, and still good in PVE.

Alright, now for the best.

The Painting Guardian Sword is wonderful. It’s got SLIGHTLY less damage than the Gold Tracer at base, (literally just by 5 points before scaling), and a bit less bleed build-up (30 per hit vs 40), but it's a bit lighter, is stronger with scaling, and it can be buffed, and for weapons that swing as fast as it does, that makes all the difference in the world. Along with a good buff, this is one of the highest DPS weapons in the entire game against relevant enemies (though still a bit away from red tearstone ring power within dusk crown + magic boosting ring dark bead nonsense), and will cut up anything it touches with ease. The difficulty though, lies is getting close enough, since it is SHORT AS ♥♥♥♥! Half the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ range of the Gold Tracer. Still though, for my souls, this is the curved sword you wanna use in PVE. Keep in mind though Slash damage does come with certain drawbacks, and isn't super effective against all enemy types. Just remember that, and it'll all be peaches.

Straight Swords

Available weapons:

• Balder Side Sword
  
• Sunlight Straight Sword (Hesitant exclusion)
  
• Short Sword (Not at all a hesitant exclusion, though I consider this a uniquely useful weapon)
  
• Long Sword (hesitant exclusion, has its pros and if you use this you are automatically cool, fairly close to the BSS anyway)
  
• Astora's Straight Sword
  
• Barbed Straight Sword
  
• Broad Sword
  
• Broken Straight Sword
  
• Crystal Straight Sword
  
• Dark Sword
  
• Drake Sword
  
• Silver Knight Straight Sword
  
• Straight Sword Hilt

That's a long list, but this is simpler than it looks. Most of these are fine, and a few are total garbage, but really, it can be difficult to consider any of these on equal grounds with the "best" option, though some come extremely close. For example, the Dark Sword is a decent sword, and has some nice moves and decent poise breaking compared to the others, but the fact is, at best, its positive qualities make it a sidegrade to the following weapon I’m about to list in terms of power, but it still weighs TWICE as much. For this reason, I can’t really call it one of “the best”. Oh, and the Short Sword is actually a totally fine weapon considering it's weight, but nobody uses it since for a single extra unit of weight you can use much better stuff. Still though, if you want one for a secondary weapon and need that single unit of weight for your min-max build, it ain't bad! Anyway, before everyone gives this guide an immediate 1-star rating because I said the Long Sword or whatever else wasn’t a fantastic choice (which I DIDN'T SAY YOU FFFFFFFF****), let me get to the best options and explain my reasoning.

Firstly, all hail the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Balder Side Sword (BSS), or as many call it, the Baller Swag Sword. “But Neonetik!”, I hear you cry, “You said the Long Sword wasn’t a "best" option, and it’s so similar to the BSS, why would you do this to us!” First of all, calm down, is only gaem, why u haf 2 be mad? Secondly, while they are similar in terms of damage, the BSS has a more than fair chunk of extra range, which is excellent. Thirdly, while I know many people love the Long sword's 2 handed R2 attack, which is a good attack for sure, being such a wide sweep, the fact is, the BSS’s poke is still fantastic, and is more useful in just as many cases as the sweep is. Plus, it really compliments the extra range of the sword. However, it does do just a bit less stamina damage than the Long Sword, but in exchange for its pros, that's a small price to pay. That being said, the Long Sword does a LITTLE bit more damage, so if the minor damage boost and slightly higher stamina damage, along with the R2 is enough of a reason for you to reject that extended range of the BSS, then you won't really be losing much going for it, and rocking the most normal weapon in the game is pretty damn awesome. So, yeah. BSS is boss. It’s decently strong, has great range, is fast as heck, is exceptionally light, it’s just all around great.

In addition to talking about the BSS and Long Sword, I'm going to be nice here, and give some attention to a weapon which not too many people use, that I think does have some right being here. Sadly, it doesn't quite match up to the BSS, but it's fairly close anyway, and that’s the sword of our favorite sunbro, Solaire. That’s right baby, I’m talking the Sunlight Straight Sword (SSS)! It’s a bit stronger than the BSS, it deals a bit more stamina damage, it’s a little slower (very slight difference, but it’s there), it’s a fair bit shorter, and it's also a bit heavier. You also gotta remember the SSS is basically a slightly stronger/slower Long Sword, which means it shares the same move-set, including that 2 handed R2 attack, the horizontal sweep, which is totally nice for variety and crowds. I still view the BSS as superior, but if you want a sword that has just that little extra damage that may mean the difference between 2 and 3 strikes, and has a sweep rather than 2 thrusting attacks, and deals just that extra bit of stamina damage, I see this as your best option. As such, I’m happy enough to sing its praises just a bit.

Again, I stress, some of the other swords are good weapons, and can be used well, but when comparing power, moveset, range, speed, stamina usage, and weight, the fact is, something like the BSS was bound to win this, specially bein so light n’all, but both the Long Sword and Sunlight Straight Sword are also more than good weapons in their own way, so, you know, whatever you choose here can do well.

Axes

Available weapons:

• Hand Axe
  
• Golem Axe (hesitant inclusion)
  
• Battle Axe (somewhat hesitant exclusion)
  
• Gargoyle Tail Axe (somewhat hesitant exclusion)
  
• Butcher Knife (fun weapon though)
  
• Crescent Axe

Again, I'm sure some people might be upset about this, but please view my reasoning for the choices here.

Axes are actually alright for what they are, but for the purposes of this guide, when you're playing a character with equal stat distribution, they are mostly not great. They have numerous problems, especially when compared to weapons in a similar weight class, including somewhat lackluster movesets and reach on certain attacks, slower attack speeds, a whiff animation if you miss your strikes, which sucks, and their damage doesn't match either. That said, they do at least swing faster than greatsword (if you connect each strike), while dealing similar poise/stamina damage, so there is something to be said for them. The Crescent axe is particularly poor, due to having split damage (not good due to how defense works, as I mentioned before), not being buffable, and having a somewhat high weight. That all being said, axes exist as good choices if you have a specific build. For example, the Butcher's Knife is good for a STR build, and has nice interesting moves and (weak) lifesteal, and the Gargoyle Tail Axe is good for a DEX build, and for PVP has the really useful feature of doubling bleed/poison/toxic resistance, but, again, for the purposes of this guide, where it is assumed stats are equally distributed, and the focus is on PVE, there are certain quality weapons that do invalidate them in near every way, and kinda make em not that great. In particular, if you compare them to a weapon like, say, the Claymore (which I will use as a consistent example due to just how solid of a weapon it is), the Claymore has no whiff animations, a more than reasonable chunk of higher damage, good reach and swing speed, and is still not particularly heavy. Though apparently, using most axes (or hammers) gives you a slightly higher range on your kicks. Neat! Despite everything I've said, I have to make a special note here about 2 of the NON "best" axes.

Firstly, the Battle Axe. I wouldn't call the Battle Axe bad, it's actually quite decent for the weight, and I can see some builds incorporating it effectively when min-maxing. The fact that it only weighs 4 units gives it a niche use similar to the Reinforced Club, which is quite good. Though the moveset is a bit more boring with the Battle Axe, and it lacks the Bleed, it does do a decent bit more damage than the Reinforced Club, so, you know, you can sort of choose what you value more here, as poise damage is identical in most ways. However, it does regular damage as opposed to strike damage, making it a bit less useful against armoured enemies. Secondly, the Gargoyle Tail Axe. It has a solid weight of 5 units, a much better range, and increases your defenses to status effects like Bleed and Poison, which is especially useful in PVP. Once again, if, for whatever reason, you're making some very particular build where you can't use the Claymore, and NEED to save either 1 or 2 units of weight, I consider these to be decent enough choices. I don't include the Butcher's Axe here mostly because of the rather high weight, even if I do like using it a bit more myself. But yeah, these weapons can fill a niche.

Now, onto the winners.

The Handaxe is an oddity amongst the other axes, and can almost be viewed a bit more like a straight sword. It has a nice moveset and fast swings that don’t stagger you when you miss on R1 attacks (which as I just said, most axes do, making this one quite unique indeed), and is very light at 2 units of weight, which is a nice bonus. Though of course, it’s damage per shot is a bit lower than most axes, it's poise damage is a lot lower than the other axes, and its stamina damage is reduced just by a little bit, but the fast swing speed really helps make up for these things by still giving it a good DPS in every form (including poise and stamina DPS, ESPECIALLY Stamina DPS, particularly for a weapon of its weight class), and being an axe, it still eats enemies stamina when they are hiding behind a shield like crazy! When compared to something like the Long Sword, it does more stamina damage to shields, whilst only weighing 2 units. Hell, it can break the shield of those shield hollows above the undead merchant in just a single 2HR1 swing! Can't say that for the Longsword or even the Halberd. It may actually be the best weapon in game for shield-breaking purposes, not 100% sure, but either way, it's totally useful. For its weight, it really can't be beat by all that much, and has it's own general and niche uses. Even when compared to weapon like the Painting Guardian Sword, which has higher AR, bleed, lower weight, and less stamina usage, the Hand Axe still makes itself a viable choice by having a higher range, overall superior damage against armoured foes due to dealing normal damage rather than slash damage (go ahead and test a +15 Hand Axe and a +15 Painting Guardian Sword against a Black/Silver Knight, even with the lower AR, the Hand Axe wins, and not by a small amount either), and, again, drastically superior poise/stamina damage, which is largely ♥♥♥♥♥♥ on the Painting Guardian Sword (takes 3 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ 2H swings to break those shield hollows shield with the PGS, and just 1 with the hand Axe). So yeah, the Hand Axe? Solid as they come.

The Golem Axe is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ heavy for an axe at 16 units, but swings at a decent speed, has decent damage (though not as much as you think considering the weight), and has a special one-handed projectile R2 attack that is actually consistently useful in-game due to the fact that it doesn’t cost much durability, and is very powerful. I love this weapon. It's just fun. That said, it can't be buffed, and the extreme weight for its weapon class is a huge downside. I'm mostly listing it here due to being uniquely useful. Though something like the Moonlight Greatsword is generally better in most ways whilst being kind of similar with the special attack, the Golem axe CAN pancake enemies, and its especially high durability means that using the R2 move a LOT is totally viable, and of course, it's all physical damage, not magic damage. Oh, and fun fact, that one handed R2 attack? The projectile deals damage, but in addition, the actual swing deals its own separate damage as well, meaning you can basically hit an enemy twice with one attack! Neat.

If we really are considering all aspects of the weaponry, including the weight, the Hand Axe is incredible, and at the very least the Golem Axe is unique in a few ways. The GTA and BK are fine for certain builds, and aren't bad within the relative terms of the axe class as a whole, but suffer in the grand scheme of things when compared against other STR+DEX weapon types. The Battle Axe may be a justifiable choice if you can only spare 4 units of weight and want something with a decent punch (that, or the Reinforced Club), but for just 2 more units of weight, you can use a weapon that's basically better in every way, and not by a small amount. That said though, the Hand Axe is VERY solid for its weight, and does a surprising amount of damage considering with its fast swings. Absolutely a good weapon.

Hammers

Available weapons:

• Reinforced Club
  
• Warpick (good with Leo ring though)
  
• Blacksmith Giant Hammer
  
• Blacksmith Hammer
  
• Hammer of Vamos
  
• Club
  
• Mace
  
• Morning Star
  
• Pickaxe

Reinforced club.

That’s it.

There is no contest. The Reinforced Club is lightweight, has good damage, has a basic but decent moveset, can be buffed for more damage, and it causes bleeding! It basically has everything, and is a great weapon in most regards. Other clubs honestly just can’t compete, and in general don't stand out (similar to the Axes, there's not much reason to bother with most of em). The closest weapon I can recommend to the Reinforced Club if you don't care for the moveset (blasphemy!) and can live without the bleed would be the Mace, as it is mostly very similar, outside of the r2's and the lack of bleed. That, or the Battle Axe, due to having the same weight and mostly identical poise damage, but having higher damage by a decent bit. Now, I did say before that the Battle Axe wasn't bad, but wasn't some fantastic weapon, so why do I speak more highly of the club? Simply because the Reinforced Club deals strike damage, which is especially useful against a lot of dangerous armored enemies, giving it a really great niche use, along with its general effectiveness, plus of course the moveset and bleed. The Warpick can deal some great damage with the Leo Ring, so if you want to hit those high counter damage numbers, that'll do ya well, but when talking about just being great as a whole in general, the Reinforced Club does it all.

Katanas

Available weapons:

• Iaito
  
• Uchigatana
  
• Washing Pole
  
• Chaos Blade

Hey, look, Katanas! Neat! These are all mostly pretty good. All are reasonably fast, long weapons that all deal bleed damage, and have awful durability. The only option to toss here is the Chaos Blade. It's not even the fact that it damages you that makes it a worse choice, but it can't even be buffed! Sure, if you have 10 humanity, it does the highest damage out of any katana, but again, a buff on the other katanas will leave it in the dust, and at least they don't hurt you. It's not bad for PVP, but for PVE? Yeah, no.

The Uchigatana is long, has good scaling and damage, and is just solid in most ways with no real big downsides.

The Iaito is a bit shorter, and VERY slightly weaker, but has some great R2 horizontal slashes, which is great for crowd control.

The Washing Pole has even LESS durability than the other katanas, swings a bit slower and takes a bit more stamina, but is ♥♥♥♥-HUGE long and will reach anything.

So yeah, most of these swords are great. Honestly, you can just pick what you like here, and not really suffer. Great stuff.

Spears

Available weapons:

• Partizan
  
• Demon's Spear
  
• Dragonslayer Spear (Hesitant inclusion)
  
• Channeler's Trident
  
• Four-Pronged Plow
  
• Moonlight Butterfly Horn
  
• Pike
  
• Silver Knight Spear (Good for catacombs though)
  
• Spear
  
• Winged Spear

Again, some great options here. All spears can be used from behind a shield, in case you didn't know. Let's take out the trash.

The Channeler’s Trident and the Four-Pronged Plow are meme weapons, and the Spear, Winged Spear, Silver Knight Spear, Pike, and Moonlight Butterfly Horn are outclassed. The Silver Knight Spear is still useful for killing skeletons in the catacombs, but isn’t great normally. The Pike is long, but is far too heavy for the extra range to be worth it. The Butterfly Horn is good for INT builds, but like I said, this guide assumes you have high stats in general to put weapons on mostly equal ground, and in that regard, it fails compared to others.

The Dragonslayer Spear deals good damage (if split) when stats are high, and the one-handed R2 attack is a decently strong projectile that doesn’t consume much durability. This gives it some pretty nice versatility, and the 2 handed R2 is a chain attack that does a lot of poise damage and can knock enemies into the air. It also deals higher stamina damage than other spears. In general, it's a pretty cool spear. However, it can't be buffed, which sucks, and it is also rather heavy at 10 units. It's unique, at least.

The Demon’s Spear has ABSURDLY long range (longest in the game for a melee weapon by far), and though split damage isn’t a good thing, it’s still decently powerful, and the weight is just legendary compared to the size of it (only 4 units, insane). Can't be buffed though, sadly.

The Partizan is a very straightforward weapon, but it’s effective in all ways. It’s got a good weight (4.5 units), an acceptable range, all the damage is physical, and most importantly, its R2 attacks are wide, sweeping moves, as opposed to the pure thrusts of the other spears. This is huge, and gives the weapon a great move to use against crowds of enemies, and makes hitting things easy. Plus, it can be buffed. Fantastic.

For my souls, the Partizan is the best of the spears in general, but again, the Demon’s and Dragonslayer have their place.

Halberds

Available weapons:

• Great Scythe
  
• Halberd
  
• Lifehunt Scythe (Hesitant inclusion with caveats)
  
• Lucerne (good with Leo ring though)
  
• Gargoyle's Halberd
  
• Giant's Halberd
  
• Scythe
  
• Titanite Catch Pole
  
• Black Knight Halberd (BANISHED TO THE SHADOW REALM)

Remember how I said before that, there would be a point where I would say something that would immediately cause a bunch of people to give this guide a thumbs-down out of sheer infuriating rage, regardless of what they thought of the rest of the guide? Well, here it is.

The Black Knight Halberd is garbage.

Ok, maybe that's a bit of an extreme word to use, but let me explain. Don’t get me wrong. For a first run through, on your first new game, if it drops for you, yes, it’s a game-changer. It’s absurdly overpowered, due to the fact that it has INSANE base damage for a weapon you can get so early, and upgrade materials can be reliably obtained, but otherwise, that’s it. Once you reach the point where you can make +15 weapons, and have decent stats on your character, the Black Knight Halberd is completely outclassed in nearly every way by even the basic Halberd. The fact that so many people seem to believe the BKH is the best halberd only speaks volumes of how limited their experience with other weapons is. I know I haven’t done this for any other weapon, but I need to say this, because not enough people do. So let’s cover this weapon in just a little more detail.

At 40/40 STR/DEX, when comparing the BKH and the regular Halberd, the regular Halberd has 10 points more damage (not much, but still, it’s more powerful), it can be buffed (for a HUGE boost in damage that the BKH will never have), it has a far more consistent moveset that doesn’t include awfully slow and near useless moves (seriously, the second strike of the BKH has half the range of the first and is just slow, plus, takes MORE STAMINA to swing), it strikes faster, and, here’s the kicker, does all this for LESS THAN HALF OF THE WEIGHT OF THE BKH. 14 units vs 6 units. Are you kidding me? The BKH is good at the very beginning of the first new game, due to high base stats, but having poor scaling means it drops off quickly in terms of effectiveness, kind of like the Drake Sword (though not quite that bad). That's not to say it doesn't have ANY benefits. It does a bit of bonus damage to demons, does just a tiny bit more stamina damage, and does a good chunk more poise damage (by far the biggest pro when talking about late game usage of this weapon), but the downsides are so unbelievably extreme compared to those (mostly very minor) upsides, there’s seriously no reason to use the damn thing past your first playthrough. As such, I rate this thing as worthless, since it’s largely outclassed and has way too many heavy downsides, at least for someone who is intending to continue playing the game past NG+7, and who isn't restricting their stats for the sake of PVP or whatever. That being said, you can totally still do well with it if you want to, and there ARE worse weapons (looking at you, Stone Greataxe), but yeah, in general, you'd be better off with something else once at a high level.

Ok, let’s move on.

Most of the Halberds aren’t good. The Giant’s Halberd and Titanite Catch Pole suffer from split damage and are kinda weak, plus they have a bad moveset, the Scythe and Gargoyles Halberd have a not so good moveset, and the Lucerne… actually, the Lucerne is decent. Considering it only does thrust damage, you can use the Leo Ring really well with it, and it's a bit lighter than the Halberd. That said, by itself, its moveset isn't the best (but isn't bad, it's at least more consistent than the other Halberds), its attacks don't reach quite as far, and I don't consider it to be on the same level as the basic halberd. For all you Lucerne lovers out there, just know I'm not talking ♥♥♥♥ on your weapon waifu, just considering them by themselves without the help of rings. It's close to being on the same level if not counting any rings, but in my opinion, doesn't quite make it. Still good though. As for the Black Knight Halberd… no, not again. So let’s talk about the good ones now.

First off, the regular Halberd. It’s amazing. It has great damage (some of the highest of the Halberds, and it’s all pure physical damage!), it has a great moveset with both regular repeated thrusting moves, along with horizontal swings for the R2 moves, it can be buffed, and it’s got a rock solid weight of 6 units. It’s another example of an all around solid weapon in Dark Souls. Highly recommended.

The Great Scythe is basically equally as good. It has a bit less damage, and the R1 moveset isn’t quite as good (though still better than the other halberds with consistent attacks), but it does have bleed! This is considered one of the best purely Dex weapons, and for good reason. With 40/40 stats though, itself and the Halberd are pretty comparable, though I’d still vote for the Halberd myself.

I'm going to break my own rule here a bit, and include the Lifehunt Scythe as a great option. The Lifehunt Scythe isn't a great weapon by itself, and really does need some support, but that support is quite easy to get from a variety of sources, and not just one (unlike the Warpick/Lucerne). It has a shorter range than the other halberds, and unfortunately it can’t be buffed, but it more than makes up for this by having the absolute best bleeding potential in the game, dealing the most bleed build-up, as well as the most bleed damage. Any boss that can bleed can be easily dispatched with this weapon. Of course, it also causes bleed to build-up on you, which kinda blows. That can be countered using the Bloodshield, the Bloodbite ring, moss, and certain armors, which is pretty easy to do, but it’s still a downside. I'd consider the Great Scythe as an overall superior weapon, but this thing can be VERY effective in many situations. Keep in mind, many bosses are outright immune to bleed, and in this case, you are FAR better off with the halberd and a good buff.

And there we go. 3 truly great halberds (though again, the Lifehunt Scythe inclusion might be me cheating a little, I value it a bit less than the others, and again, the Lucerne is generally good as well). Once again, for my souls, the ordinary Halberd is best, but all 3 are great.

This is a picture of the Halberd.


There is no joke.

Greatswords

Available weapons:

• Claymore
  
• Moonlight Greatsword
  
• Flamberge
  
• Black Knight Sword (fun weapon though and has its uses)
  
• Abyss Greatsword
  
• Bastard Sword
  
• Crystal Greatsword
  
• Great Lord Greatsword
  
• Greatsword of Artorias
  
• Greatsword of Artorias (Cursed)
  
• Man Serpent Greatsword
  
• Obsidian Greatsword
  
• Stone Greatsword

Oh man that’s a lot of weapons. Ok, let’s do this quickly, like with the Straight Swords. Most of these can go into the trash. These weapons aren’t awful (I’m just saying into the trash for colourful language usage), but these all have fairly large downsides compared to the "best" weapons. It could be split damage, high weight with little in return, awful movesets, awful/non-existent scaling, ect. Some have cool qualities, like being able to damage ghosts, knocking down enemies on hit, or having cool magical effects, but in general aren’t worth the trade off. Though I’d admit the Obsidian Greatsword is fantastic for low-stat characters, and the Man Serpent Greatsword is fantastic for pure STR builds, but again, that’s not the point of this guide. I do want to mention that the Black Knight Sword is super fun, and has slightly higher stamina damage compared to other greatswords (40, as opposed to the 30 of the Claymore and 35 of the Flamberge/Moonlight Greatsword), so if you wanna shield break more often, it ain't bad for that, though it can't be buffed, and man, those R2 attacks are exceptionally slow, even if they do knock enemies down (seriously, the speed difference between the BKS and the BKGS on R2 attacks is practically non-existent, it's actually hilarious, though at least the BKS isn't too heavy). But hey, it's still unique and fun, so whatever!

Finally, I want to give brief mention to the Flamberge. The Flamberge, when compared to the Claymore, has less damage, and the R2 attacks are not long-reaching thrusts. However, it has bleed, which makes it unique amongst greatswords, it deals a little more stamina damage, and its R2 attacks are fairly fast, which makes it a decent combo weapon! I'd argue that if we were talking about purely PVP, this may be near equal to the Claymore, though in PVE, the claymore moveset and extra damage give it the edge. As such, this is an exclusion on the "best" spot list, but I felt it deserved more attention than the other weapons.

Now for the good stuff.

The Claymore is solid. Matter a fact, it’s great. It’s got a great weight of 6 units, good damage, a glorious moveset including fairly fast thrusts, can be buffed, heck, it’s just all around quality. Nothing to say really.

The Moonlight Greatsword doesn’t have the most amazing damage, but it’s got the same weight as the Claymore, and it’s got a fantastic special R2 projectile attack which doesn’t use up much durability. It can’t be buffed, but that’s a fair price to pay. Pure magic damage, no so split defense nonsense here. Nothing much to say, it’s solid.

I personally find the Claymore to be the overall best, due to having everything about it just be solid as mentioned. Honestly, it's just good for everything.

Curved Greatswords

Available weapons:

• Murakumo
  
• Gravelord Sword (fun, though)
  
• Server

Murakuma. Server is just an inferior version with some near useless life steal. The Gravelord Sword is good for low stat levels, and has some interesting qualities such as toxic build-up, a thrust attack, and a decent weight, but the Murakuma deals damage quite effeciently, there’s nothing that can top it in this category in that regard. Plus, it can be buffed, and deals slightly higher stamina damage compared to the other Curved Greatswords. Easy choice, though I don't tend to use it much since I view the Claymore as a more enjoyable greatsword type weapon. Great weapon though!

Great Axes

Available weapons:

• Black Knight Greataxe
  
• Demon's Greataxe
  
• Greataxe
  
• Dragon King Greataxe
  
• Stone Greataxe (nice balance, Fromsoft)

The Stone Greataxe and Dragon King Greataxe are just kinda weak compared to other axes, and are heavy as hell. Shame, since they both have interesting movesets (the Dragon with its AOE magic, and the Stone with the quicker than average 1-handed R2), but man, that weight-to-power ratio is bad. As for the regular Greataxe, it’s actually alright, being the lightest greataxe whilst also having incredible power, but it's a bit overshadowed by another option in regards to moveset, and I feel it's kind of overshadowed by other heavy weapons in other categories as well.

I'm going to include the Black Knight Greataxe, simply for it's unique and useful aspects, though I don't necessarily view it as quite on the same level as the other axe of choice. It has a decent moveset with a long range, but is a bit weaker than the stats would suggest. From what I recall, this weapon was somewhat nerfed shortly after the game’s release, but the stats were never changed properly to reflect this. There was something weird going on with this thing. Anyway, it’s still good! Wide sweeping attacks, a not-totally-awful weight, and extra damage on demons. However, its poise damage is a bit less than other Greataxes, and it can’t be buffed. It’s alright, and has some usage where other axes can fail.

The Demon’s Greataxe, however, is phenomenal in almost every way. It has the highest single shot damage in the game for a melee weapon, it can be buffed, it’s got a GREAT moveset with R2 moves that do awesome combos and pancake enemies, it deals slightly higher stamina damage, and though it’s heavy at 22 units, its power is unmatched. That being said, even if it is extremely powerful, that weight can be a SERIOUS issue... unless of course, you're like me, who maxed out their endurance first and foremost above all other stats after getting to the softcaps for the other stuff. In THAT situation, if you have Havel's ring on, you can use the Demon's Greataxe with an Iron Round Shield (or even an eagle shield if you want to), and STILL have enough equip load for armor to reach 62 poise, and then throwing on the Wolf ring on top of that making it 102 poise (which you can then remove later if you want), ALL WHILE STILL FAST ROLLING, or hell, if you would prefer to rock the Ring of Favor and Protection instead of Havel's, if you're willing to accept having just a Heater shield, you can totally do that, and still have a max of 44 poise, which you can then boost to 84 with the wolf ring when required, and again, STILL FAST ROLL! Point is, though the Demon's Greataxe is so heavy, it doesn't stop you from from being able to be super nimble, or require all that much sacrifice to do so, long as you got the stats for it. Great bit of kit, this one.

Great Hammers

Available weapons:

• Large Club
  
• Demon's Great Hammer
  
• Dragon Tooth
  
• Grant
  
• Great Club (still decent enough though)
  
• Smough's Hammer (though the 2H rolling attack can mess with people hard in PVP, and frankly, this weapon is just fun)

The Demon’s Great Hammer, Dragon Tooth, Grant, and Smough’s Hammer can all be tossed into the trash (less a case of colorful language here compared to previous examples, these genuinely are mostly pretty bad). Either they are way too heavy for the relatively low damage and scaling, and have piss-poor movesets, or… well actually that’s basically it. They all suffer from the same problems. The Great Club is somewhat close to being on equal grounds with the "best" choice, but its lack of any special qualities and overall worse moveset make it a less than ideal choice, unless literally all you're capable of doing is fishing for backstabs, or if you exclusively use the rolling r1 for high damage number, which is totally fine. It's a good weapon! All these weapons (Great Club aside) are extremely heavy, and just don’t do enough to compare to the remaining options. Oh, wait, there’s one one option left… well alright then! No need to delay!

The Large Club is a fantastic weapon. It’s got a good weight for such a large weapon, has a fantastic moveset that does wide sweeps on the R2, as well as overhead knockdowns, and to top it off, does poison build up which can be doubled with a resin. The Great Club may be a bit stronger, but it’s heavier, has no poison, and has an awful moveset comparatively. Go large, or go home.

Fun fact, a few years ago, I was testing out all the great hammers to see if there was any difference in the hitbox sizes, and I discovered that Smough’s Hammer actually had a slightly bigger hitbox on the 2-handed rolling attack compared to other great hammers, which could be very reliably tested and proven! I added this bit of info to all the Dark Souls wikis as soon as I found out. I was so proud of myself for finding SOMETHING good about what was considered (and frankly, in most objective terms, IS) one of the worst weapons in the game, and it’s totally great in PVP since you can’t parry those attacks! I ended up pissing off so many people spamming that one attack, hahaha. Scrubs, am I right? Lol. Getting hate-mail from people who are angry over being beaten by a single attack is hilarious. I mean, it's Smough's bloody Hammer. How much more do you want me to disadvantage myself here? I love Smough's Hammer as a weapon. The moveset is a lot of fun, but it's not exactly good. The 1H R2 knocks back enemies (knocking someone off a cliff with it is the best feeling in the world), and the 2H R2 pancakes enemies (both attacks also deal exceptionally high poise damage at 75 and 100 respectively, but already have guaranteed knockdown effects anyway, so it matters a lot less), though both are slower than molasses dripping off a spoon. It deals a bit more stamina damage than other Great Hammers, plus, you heal 10HP per hit with it. Not much, but still. It's also so big and heavy that it genuinely makes it harder to see things, including what you're fighting, and it can't be buffed. At least Smough's Hammer has some genuinely useful qualities about it, unlike SOME weapons. Anyway, much later, I found some additional documents about weapon ranges and stuff, and yeah, it's pretty crazy.

(Side note just for fun. If you wanna mess around with people in PVP with the Smough's Hammer 2H rolling attack spam tactic I mentioned, if you have 99 endurance and Havel's ring on, you can just BARELY use Smough's Hammer, a Heater Shield, Havel's Chest-piece and the Hollow Soldier Waistcloth for 54 poise and still have a fast roll, whilst also having an extra ring slot for whatever you want, and one extra unit of weight for your off-hand/secondary slots, which you could use for a pyromancy flame and a mail-breaker/parrying dagger or something. Hell, you could also gain an extra half a unit of weight if you used Havel's Helm/Gauntlets along with the Hollow Soldier Waistcloth for 53 poise which just meets an important breakpoint. You could also just ditch the shield if you didn't care for it, and get a few more points into poise or extra carry weight that way, or heck, equip a damn Parrying Dagger, or even an Ivory Catalyst! Of course, if you also wanna use the Ring of Favor and Protection, you can use a bloody Tower Shield instead of a heater shield, which is baller, and adding a father mask gives you even a little more extra free units of weight. Personally, I prefer equipping another ring, like the Hornets, Dark Wood Grain, Wolf, or Cloranthy. Cool stuff!)

Ultra Great Swords

Available weapons:

• Zweihander
  
• Black Knight Greatsword
  
• Demon Great Machete
  
• Dragon Greatsword
  
• Greatsword (has its uses, close call)

Ok so maybe technically these aren’t the “biggest” boys, especially compared to the huge-ass great hammers, but come on. We already had “Greatswords”, and these are “ULTRA” great, so I kinda have to put them at the end of this list.

Anyway, wut r u? a casul?

Zwei wins. Sorry about not building tension. But Zwei wins. All the other ultra greatswords are either very heavy or have a worse moveset. Usually both. They are good for certain builds, but for equal stat distribution? Nah. The Zwei is the lightest of all of them, swings as fast as the Greatsword, which makes it faster than the other 3 ultra greatswords, has a pancake knockdown effect on the R2 attacks on human sized enemies (which usually stuns as well), which is also faster than most UGS R2 moves, has a slightly longer range, and is just all around amazingly solid. Genuinely one of the best weapons in the game for PVE. It may not have any special magic like the Dragon Greatsword, but for all purpose effectiveness, there is no contest. I wish I could include the Greatsword here, since I just love that heavy thrust it has, but man, compared to the Zwei, it's heavier for no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ reason, and is lacking in terms of effect on enemies comparatively. However, its R2 is generally more damaging than the zwei's, so if you're close to one shotting enemies with your zwei R2, then switching to this can put you over the edge. Plus, Leo ring hits with the thrusts are INSANE! Oh, and the Black Knight Greatsword does a bit more stamina damage than other UGS's, but that doesn't really make up for the high weight and slow moves. So yeah.

ITS TIME TO ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ PWN SOME N00bZ

Bows

Available weapons:

• Composite Bow
  
• Black Bow of Pharis
  
• Darkmoon Bow
  
• Long Bow
  
• Short Bow

The Composite Bow has less range than some of the bows, but does reasonably higher damage and it’s all physical. Simple. Shame bows aren’t all that great.

Crossbows

Available weapons:

• Avelyn
  
• Heavy Crossbow
  
• Light Crossbow
  
• Sniper Crossbow

The Avelyn and Heavy crossbow are both great (as far as crossbows go anyway, which isn't far). I prefer the Heavy for the ammo conservation and high single shot damage, but most prefer the Avelyn for the triple shot overall higher DPS. Your choice really.

Greatbows

Available weapons:

• Gough's Greatbow
  
• Dragonslayer Greatbow

Gough’s. More power, range, and stamina damage. Bit heavier. If you’re gonna be using a greatbow, that’s the better choice. I mean, the extra 3 units of weight is kinda much considering all things, but in most cases, if you are using greatbows as part of your build, you can usually fairly easily make it work. If not though, then the Dragonslayer is fine.

Shields

When it comes to shields, it’s a bit more difficult to really say which are the “best”, since it really depends on what you are fighting. As such, I’m not going to talk about shields that specifically have high resistance against one element (which means I won't be mentioning things like the Crest shield below, though it is a great anti-magic shield), and rather, I’m going to focus on shields with either general effectiveness, or unique outstanding qualities.

Small Shields

Available shields:

• Buckler
  
• Small Leather Shield
  
• Target Shield
  
• Caduceus Round Shield
  
• Cracked Round Shield
  
• Effigy Shield
  
• Leather Shield
  
• Plank Shield
  
• Red and White Round Shield
  
• Warrior's Round Shield
  
• Crystal Ring Shield
  
• Dark Hand

Honestly, small shields aren’t all that useful, due to not having 100% physical damage protection, light deflection, and very low stability as a general rule, but they do have faster parry animations, so if that’s what you want, you have options. However, there is a special medium shield called the Heater Shield that kind of invalidates them. Well, we’ll get to that when we get to that.

The Target Shield and Buckler have uniquely long parry animations, making them great for getting easy parries when learning the game, though it may do you more harm than good because it will not really let you develop the same timing as you need with a more useful shield. Still, if all you ever wanna do is parry, and don't care about blocking, these ain't bad, though you may as well use the parrying dagger if that's the case.

The Small Leather Shield is only 0.5 units of weight. Wanna stay light whilst still having something capable of parrying/blocking some damage? Consider it. It's good for the weight, which, you know, ain't much, but still!

Medium Shields

Available Shields:

• Grass Crest Shield
  
• Silver Knight Shield
  
• Bloodshield
  
• Heater Shield
  
• Iron Round Shield
  
• Spider Shield
  
• Balder Shield
  
• Black Knight Shield
  
• Caduceus Kite Shield
  
• Crest Shield (fantastic anti-magic shield though)
  
• Dragon Crest Shield
  
• East-West Shield
  
• Gargoyle's Shield
  
• Hollow Soldier Shield
  
• Knight Shield
  
• Large Leather Shield
  
• Sanctus
  
• Sunlight Shield
  
• Tower Kite Shield
  
• Wooden Shield
  
• Crystal Shield
  
• Spiked Shield
  
• Pierce Shield

Most of these aren't that useful either, but most of the ones that are, are fantastic. Also, yes, I know the Sanctus regenerates HP, but it's so slow and the shield as a whole is pretty bad, so it's pretty much not worth it under most circumstances.

The Heater Shield is the lightest 100% physical damage blocking shield in the game. As such, a great choice if you wanna stay light. In addition, it’s the only shield outside the small shields that has a fast parry speed. 10/10 shield.

The Iron Round Shield is probably my favorite shield in terms of what it does. It’s the only shield outside of the heavy shields that has the quality of having HEAVY deflection. While the stability isn’t great, even large enemies like Capra Demon’s strikes will bounce right off of it, which honestly saves your stamina in the long term, and of course, it can still parry, meaning it’s the only shield with both heavy deflection, and a parry. Plus, good weight. Again, 10/10 shield.

How about another 10/10? The Silver Knight Shield has the highest stability out of all medium shields, making you take far less stamina damage from attacks when using it, and, again, being a medium shield, means it can parry. Great stuff, this one.

The Grass Crest Shield is the ultimate offensive shield. Its defense isn't great, but it increases your stamina regeneration speed. If you like 2-handing your weapon, and PWNing N00bZ, then this is for you.

The Bloodshield is great for use with the Lifehunt Scythe as it greatly increases your bleeding defence. Also increases poison and curse resistance. Great stuff.

The Spider Shield totally blocks poison and toxin. Good against certain enemies.

Heavy Shields

Available shields:

• Tower Shield
  
• Greatshield of Artorias
  
• Havel's Greatshield
  
• Eagle Shield
  
• Bonewheel Shield
  
• Black Iron Greatshield
  
• Cleansing Greatshield
  
• Giant Shield
  
• Stone Greatshield

Greatshields can't parry, and instead do a shield bash. Keep that in mind when comparing them to the other lighter shields. Though they do have heavy deflection, which is absolutely fantastic.

The Bonewheel shield is a meme and it is hilarious, but is also kinda trash. It does not belong on this list, but I'm putting it here because using it makes you a badass. If you rank weapons by how much of a boss you are using them, then go ahead and making a lightning one, a fire one, duel wield these ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, wear the full Armor of Thorns, and go roll and spin your way to victory.

As for effectiveness, there’s good options here.

The Tower Shield has almost unbeatable stability for a pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ great weight (13 units, pretty damn good for a greatshield). Definitely my most used shield in the game, followed closely by the Iron Round Shield. Totally get this.

Havel’s Greatshield has a unique buff that basically gives you infinite poise and makes enemies bounce off your attacks like Iron Skin, but without the speed penalty. It's also an extremely effective anti-magic shield (though the Crest Shield is probably more useful for this in general), and has good defenses as a whole. Heavier than hell though. Like, insanely so (26 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ units, my god).

The Greatshield of Artorias has the highest stability out of any regular shield (regular meaning the normal upgrade path). Also, not too bad on weight, and blocks 100% of status effects like bleed and poison in PVE. I prefer the tower shield due to saving 3 units of weight on a near equal stability, but it’s still great. If you can spare those extra 3 weight units, then there's no reason not to pick this.

Finally, I'm going to include the Eagle Shield on this list. It used to have 100% physical damage resistance, but was nerfed down to only being 95%, which was a pretty good move, since it was pretty OP. In fact, I feel it should have been taken down even lower than that. It's one of the lightest shields with heavy deflection (a bit heavier than the iron round shield, but only by a single unit of weight), but it has pretty fantastic stability when fully upgraded, considering it's weight. Not having 100% physical damage deflection is annoying, and I personally don't use it, but man, is it totally a worthwhile shield. Truly a great choice if you want a lightweight but still powerful shield, so long as you're willing to accept that chip damage.

Regarding Staffs, Talismans, Pyromancy, Rings, and Armor...

To be honest, I can't see much of a reason to really cover these, as there are very clear “best” choices depending on your stats/build type, and what you’re looking for, due to them being based pretty much only on magic adjustment in terms of differences, and a few obvious qualities. Rings depend entirely on what you feel like going for, and thus you will generally have obvious "best" choices, and besides, lots of them are great in their own way. Lots of armor also has unique qualities, and I could add some info about that, but again, armor is generally more mix and match and is adjusted based on weapons you are using, as well as what you find stylistically cool if not mix-maxing for the most poise while still fast rolling. Also, the egghead parasite attack deals 100 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ poise damage, which is basically the only good thing about that thing. Pretty awesome though.

If y’all be wantin some extra detail bout this here stuff, leave a comment, if I get enough requests, I spose I can expand, but till then, Ima chill.

What about Neonetik? What does he like the most?

How nice of you to ask! You make me blush. <3

I like to think that anyone reading this guide in full will already have a pretty good idea of which weapons I personally value the most within Dark Souls, since, you know, I basically already said everything. But hey, you want more info? Here it is.

First off, I'm not much on "New Game"s, myself. I prefer to keep looping on one character, playing through the game dozens of times with enemies at their hardest, and all equipment unlocked, and upgrading my stats further and further. This way, I have full control over doing basically whatever sort of build/run I wanna do from the very start of the game, which I enjoy most. I don't play Dark Souls for the progression, really. I play it because I find the combat and world to be fun. Few exceptions (like a level 1 character) exist.

In terms of movement, mid-rolling ain't bad for PVE, but for me, it's fast roll or bust. I don't consider myself an extreme min-maxer, but I do like to keep poise high.

With shields, I'm usually rocking the Tower Shield, and occasionally the Iron Round Shield for like, 90% of the time that I play, though I will sometimes switch the the Grass Crest Shield when facing bosses that can be dodged fairly reliably and don't deflect off of shields, and the Heater Shield when I really need some extra equip load and still wanna have 2 totally free ring slots. Some other shields are situational though, like the Blood Shield, Havel's shield, Crest Shield, Greatshield of Artorias, and Silver Knight Shield. I tend to use all of these whenever the need arises, be it the weapons I'm using, or what sort of enemies I'm fighting. I don't bother with most other shields. Straightforward enough.

When it comes to weaponry, I'm reasonably more versatile, and will generally not stick with one thing for that long. For the weapons that I find most easy to deal with in regards to equipping them and not messing up other aspects of my character, I tend to enjoy the Balder Side Sword, Long Sword, Sunlight Straight Sword, Partizan, Halberd, Claymore, Large Club, Black Knight Sword, Ricard's Rapier, Hand Axe, and the Zweihander. Powerful/fun weapons that are mostly reasonably light.

Beyond that though, when I'm not as interested in being super effective in every situation, and just wanna have some fun with variety, I will often go with Ricard's Rapier for those awesome 6 stab combo pokes, the Painting Guardian Sword for that absurd buffed DPS potential, the Demon's Spear for that immense range, and the Lifehunt Scythe when I go up against bosses who can bleed easily.

Generally, though I view many of the other weapons as truly great and on equal footing with this stuff, most of this stuff is reasonably light, and makes it easily switching between it without needing to stop and min-max my character to retain enough poise. Hence why I gravitate towards them a bit. Don't misunderstand me though, I do use almost all the weapons I have listed in this guide as the "best", I just use some a lot more than others.

For projectiles, I don't really tend to use em, but if I have the space and am using particular weapons that suit it, I usually have the Heavy Crossbow equipped.

And of course, I almost always have a catalyst with Crystal Magic Weapon ready to go in my other left-hand slot, and my Pyromancy Glove with Power Within in my other right-hand slot, plus a few Black Flames for good measure. I'm not much on magic, but when it can boost my killing power with my melee weapons? I'm down to clown!

As for rings, man, there are so many great rings. If I'm being VERY competitive, I usually do my best to ensure I can have as much poise as I can without needing to dedicate either of the ring slots to Havel's Ring or the Ring of Favor and Protection, for maximum freedom, though that being said, the Ring of Favor In Protection is so damn helpful, if I have a choice of which to keep on, I'll generally go for that, and switch Havel's Ring for whatever other ring I need at the time, be it Bloodbite Ring, the Wolf Ring, the Rusted Iron Ring, the Dark Woodgrain Ring, Hornet Ring, and the Cloranthy Ring. That all being said though, I'm not usually going full try-hard mode, so I'm not usually using the Ring of Favor and Protection. I've provided some info way below about what I usually use.

With armor, I'm a big fan of the Black Iron set, due to it looking incredible (exactly the sort of powerful, yet reserved aesthetic I'm into), and hitting basically all important poise breakpoints, but, if I'm being competitive (which again, I'm usually not) I do my best to ensure I have a piece of the Armor of Thorns on (usually the leggings) so that I can stun poiseless enemies just by rolling into them, and then I may put on Havel's Gauntlets if I'm looking to reach above 76 poise for PVP. If I REALLY want to use a very particular weapon/shield/ring combo, and need to save some weight but still have poise, I'll resign myself to using the Hollow Soldier Waistcloth, and maybe the Gargoyle Helm or whatever for that absolutely incredible poise-to-weight ratio they have (though Havel's armor is heavy, it's poise-to-weight ratio is ALSO fantastic). I'm not above the shame. Hell, I'll wear a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ father mask if need be, which is fine, considering it's the best looking mask in the game. :^)

Finally, if I'm going absolute, turbo, FULL comfy-mode, where I want to do absolutely NO worrying about anything, or mess with any stats at all (which is often, basically making this my default load-out), then here's what I do.

Black Iron Helm.
Black Iron Armor.
Black Knight Gauntlets.
Black Sorcerer Boots (purely for style, as they offer no poise, and I will remove these if I want to use the Large Club).
Havel's Ring.
Ascended Pyromany Flame (very occasionally the Heavy Crossbow).
Oolacile Ivory Catalyst.
Tower Shield (and OCCASIONALLY the Iron Round Shield if I wanna use the Heavy Crossbow, or the Golem Axe/Murakumo).
Zweihander (or any weapon 10 units of weight or below, with exception to the Large Club).

This combination, along with 99 endurance, gives you 53 poise, which is a pretty good amount for most things in the game (even for PVP), allows you to (just BARELY) fast roll, gives you one extra ring slot to do whatever you like with, and makes you look ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ AWESOME! With this combination, you can use a Zweihander, or literally any weapon that is 10 units of weight or less (of which I enjoy many), whilst still having access to all buffs, good poise, great stability, and looking COOL. The extra ring slot is especially useful for whatever specific purpose you need it for at the time, and switching between weapons during a run (like I said I do often) is a breeze. If I want some more weight though, I will switch to the Iron Round shield, but this almost never happens outside of using a heavy crossbow or Golem Axe for some sections. In the event I want to use the Large Club, I simply remove my Black Sorcerer Boots. Easy peazy.

However, let me make something clear. This is NOT optimal. As I said, to me, this looks ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awesome, and I enjoy that, but you can absolutely get more poise for less weight by using gear like the Hollow Soldier Waistcloth + Havel's Chest Piece for 54 poise, or Havel's Helm/Gauntlets + The Hollow Soldier Waistcloth for 53 poise, which just barely meets an important breakpoint. Doing that lets you use the Golem Axe/Murakumo with the Tower shield and still fast roll with good poise, if you don't mind looking a bit ♥♥♥♥! I may occasionally do this.

So yeah, that's me. Fun stuff!


Note, the pic above is in fact, NOT me (though I'm sure you guessed that, I hope...), nor is it my art. It is from a person called mutisija, and the creature is called a "Jellyraptor". I just think it looks cool. Full credit to the artist.

Closing

What a trip. Well, there you go. Hopefully this guides helps some people trying to find great equipment, and makes the game a bit more fun. Man, what a journey. God I love this game.

Though I hate to sound like a desperate youtuber, giving this guide a good rating helps keep it easy to see for other people who wanna enjoy the game, so if you think I did a good job, consider taking a second out of your day to click on that like button if you think I deserve it. Also, if you'll allow me just a little self-promoting, feel free to join my own personal group/curator page.
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Neonetik
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Neonetik/curation

If you don't care about the group stuff, or just want some more proof of my quality, check out some of my other guides! I update this list whenever I make a new guide (or just started doing so from the 14th of January, 2021), so yeah, it's all here.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1367643283
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=940230128
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=534865078

Thank you for reading, and remember...

[Vitamin defincensy]

this is useful; everyone always says "uhhh just pick what you want" but way too many weapons are just inferior copies of other weapons statwise.
if you wanna play the game on easy mode use black knight greataxe with power within; you will be unstoppable.

[domi.dasi]

WOW. I'm not even halfway through this and I already know that I will come back here A LOT! I'm at the end of NG+ rn (only BOC and Gwyn to go) with a Quality build, and I'm trying out a lot of different weapons. It is so cool that you took the time to share your knowledge about this beautiful game, and it's really interesting to hear your perspective and some insight into the numbers. Thank you very much!

[Neonetik]

Only happy to help. Glad it was useful for ya. Have fun on your playthroughs!

[VegemiteBalls]

Great guide! I'm very familiar with the Souls series and have come back from a long break from them, starting with DS1.
I'm going to do a PvE playthrough through multiple NG cycles and have decided that I'm going to pick one weapon from each list type and get it to +15 and use it (or +5 if boss weapon). By that I mean, just switch them around as I go.
Will go Deprived and will level VIT, END, STR & DEX dead equally, until those stats are 40. This pleases my OCD as well where I like numbers to be similar and round 🙃
From there I guess I'll get Faith to 40 and use DMB and SLB for buffs.

But anyway, this build won't be optmised in the slightest but it will be very fun for me as I like to have a lot of variety going on, which this build will definitely have plenty of. Good thing about Dark Souls, just about everything can work well - usually as long as it doesn't have the word 'broken' in the name!

[Neonetik]

Part 2:

In addition, I am not simply comparing damage values, but other factors, such as weight, moveset, buffability, stamina cost/stamina damage, etc. All of these factors are important.

I believe I explained with a reasonably decent amount of detail as to the issue with the BKH in my Halberd section, specifically when I compared it to the default Halberd, and provided several statistics to explain my viewpoint, but if you like, I can attempt to elaborate further on those 2 specific weapons. That said, if you are choosing to use Chaos versions of weapons, this guide is useless to you.

[Neonetik]

Part 1:

Hello Bee Abuser [Icon_Resource_Honey].

As I stated in my section titled "Vital notes about the information in this guide (PLEASE READ THIS!)"...

"I’m also assuming that every weapon is working at its highest potential, that is to say, it’s been upgraded to max down the standard path, and its best possible scaling is being taken into account."

This is very important. Split damage can make a massive different to how a weapon works. This is why I made special effort to put it into a vital notes section of this guide, and asking politely for people to read it.

[bee abuser]

Idk XD I literally leveled up a claymore to chaos+5 and it doesn't deal half the damage my black knight halberd does... how is it considered such a great weapon and black knight halberd trash? I am literally on NG+4 and black knight halberd is my favourite weapon And yes I used 10 humanities when trying chaos thingy

[Eight moderately feeble bears]

I typically play pvp around level 50, so I run into more focused builds and less magic, and I enjoy it more. My favorite pvp build is level 50 with onion helm, lightning zwei or greatsword at +0, offhand lightning avelyn at +0, havels and poise ring. Its 28 str, 14 dex, enough endurance to lightroll, and vitality to level fifty.

[Sigma]

im gonna be honest some of the funnest pvp ive done is at high soul levels over 100
I think the only reason low soul level req caps set by the community is only because of griefers and gankers

[Neonetik]

You're more than welcome. There's so much misinformation being thrown around (especially that garbage about the Black Knight Halberd being best halberd), I felt like I had to add my own input, supported as best as I could with fact (not claiming I'm perfect, but I do at least elaborate on why I consider certain options to be the best, and give a specific settings of which the information is applicable, e.g., NG+7, PVE, Etc...).

Always happy to hear I can help people out somewhat.