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PVP Weapon Tier List patch 1.10

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2024-04-10 10:10:11

Explanation

Some weapons may seem to be tiered twice - for example, "Greatswords" and "Marais Executioner's Sword."

Weapons with unique attacks (commonly L2s, but sometimes R2s or R1s) need to be considered separately in most cases.

In some cases, the unique attack(s) make the weapon markedly better - whether that be an L2 attack that can instantly kill another player, or true combo potential with R1s, etc. In other cases, being stuck with a slow and predictable or otherwise unhelpful weapon skill could make a unique weapon worse than its generic counterparts. The Ash of War system can shore up the weaknesses of some movesets, and weapons that can't use it but also have an unremarkable L2, like Crystal Knife, cannot carve out a niche for themselves. And in yet other cases, weapons may have unique attacks but they do not in any significant way affect the power profile of the weapon, like Erdtree Dagger's R2 attacks (which are fabulous in PVE content, but this tierlist is only for PVP).

If you are looking for a specific weapon, but cannot find it on the list, assume it to belong to the generic category containing its moveset (in the case of Erdtree Dagger and Crystal Knife, in 'Daggers').

Conversely, some weapons may seem to overlap within a tier (Greatswords, Blasphemous Blade). This is because they are comparable in power but for different reasons. With a greatsword like Iron Greatsword, you are going to primarily use light and heavy attacks to set up an Ash of War weapon skill, while Blasphemous Blade's primary plan of attack is Taker's Flames (though it happens to be serviceable as a greatsword besides, unlike some others. So while you give up the flexibility and surprise factor of Ashes of War, you gain a predictable but very powerful L2 attack).

S Tier- Overpowered. These weapons invalidate other options and/or trivialize PVP battles in many contexts. The game would be healthier if they were tuned down some. As such, if you intend to win, you should realistically abuse these weapons.

A Tier- Very strong. Suitable candidates for your "primary" weapon - your default, the one you enter PVP with and could possibly keep equipped the entire time without much issue. A tier weapons handle most situations well.

B Tier- Good. B tier weapons are more likely to be situational weapons that you swap to, rather than your workhorse primary weapon. You could get away with using them as a primary though, just expect to lose to people taking the game a bit more seriously than you.

C Tier- Viable. You aren't stupid for having one of these in your inventory or anything, but you might not find abundant opportunity to show off what they can do. Most C tier weapons are fine, just outshined by higher tier weapons.

D Tier- Unviable. Anything that you should not seriously consider an option for fighting other players ends up here. They range from almost usable to actually worthless, but unviability is simply that, and I don't feel the need to subdivide it into an F tier as well. Don't use these unless you're trying to challenge yourself.

S

Cleanrot Knight's Sword- Still one of the best. Why From Software decided the longest thrusting sword should also be the strongest, and be able to use all the same ashes of war, is beyond me. Plainly the best thrusting sword and is excellent as a standalone weapon or as a sidearm for a slower weapon.

Nagakiba- Absurd length and, unlike Washing Poles of the past, at virtually no cost. Comparable damage, stamina use, and hitstun to other katana. Dual wield moveset is extremely strong, particularly crouch L1. Spinning slash is an easy confirm that can do tons of damage.

Moonveil- The favorite of furled fingers, Redditors, and Tesla CEOs is sadly, unironically very good in PVP. Its large base magic damage scales excellently with intelligence, meaning it blends in perfectly to a typical magic affinity build, rather than requiring heavy investment just for itself. L2R2 is a nearly unrivaled heal punish, and many PVP fights can be won just with Transient Moonlight alone. Being a magic damage L2 machine, it can be buffed by the spellblade set, magic cracked tear, shard of Alexander, and then even more by things like terra magica.

Twinblades- All of them, except Eleonora's Poleblade. A spinning slash twinblade is one of the easiest PVP wins possible in the game right now. Gargoyle's Black Blades is locked to it, but that's fine, if it ends up with the most AR for your build, use it.

Stormhawk Axe- Press L2 to win invasion. It does nothing else. There is no use case for this weapon outside of Thunderstorm, but Thunderstorm is just stupid.

Spears- Dual wielded spears are, even with 1.10 poise, too good. Low opportunity cost, high speed, insane reach, absurd damage, high status buildup. A single spear, conversely, would be D tier. Who knew? Clearly, some (pike, clayman, naginata) are better suited than others, but even dual wielded Crystal Spears can win a lot.

Death Ritual Spear- A spear with better things to do than PSL1s. Spearcall Ritual can win invasions simply by pressing L2 until the victim dies. A hilariously imbalanced weapon that needs adjustment. The only evident counterplay is endure.

Bolt of Gransax- Imagine a spear. Now give it an L2 that can kill hosts in one shot like a Counter Strike AWP. Its length, high AR, and lightning damage let it remain perfectly serviceable as a direct combat weapon.

Great Spears- All of 'em. They're all disgustingly busted in their own ways. Treespear and Siluria's are the weakest, but still get the absurd L1s, Lance gets ashes of war, serpent hunter gets un-nerfed colossal sword crouch pokes, Vyke's inflicts madness, and Mohg's has a silly L2, bleed, and excellent length. Pick your poison.

Raptor Talons- Possibly the most imbalanced weapon in the game. Keen with blood grease / bloodflame blade, or occult can kill many players, even in Lionel's with 60 vigor and crimson amber +3, in one true combo. Or at least come close. No L2 attack needed, so endure is free.

Venomous Fang- Basically the same as Raptor Talons, but you wear a different hat.

Ripple Halberd- for the average Joe who neither spends 20 hours a week farming crafting materials, nor resorts to mods or cheat engine for unlimited consumables, this is an unremarkable weapon. For the others, it enjoys all the benefits of the excellent glaive moveset plus ridiculous amounts of sleep buildup on hit (or even on miss, a lot of the time). If you don't die outright to one sleep proc, you will very quickly run out of both red and blue flasks, and 0 FP bloodhound step can't save you from the ripple halberd gank.

Greatbows- Most invaders would agree that the greatbow is the single best invasion weapon, and they are still good in duels. Golem arrows were a mistake. Knock players off ledges for instant kills, or simply knock them onto their backs over and over until they die. Rain of Arrows or Radahn's Rain can kill entire parties in one go. Erdtree Greatbow is excluded here, there is no reason to not just use the other bows, even on a faith build, and it cannot use Rain of Arrows.

Pulley Crossbow- Can true combo off of halberds and similar amounts of hitstun to plug an opponent with three sleep bolts. Anyone with enough mind to withstand the sleep buildup, probably doesn't have enough vigor to withstand the damage, unless you play at very high levels.

A

Misericorde- Easily the best infusible dagger. One-shot critical hit potential that other daggers can't quite so easily achieve. Longest length, letting it also serve well as a quick swap to finish off a low HP opponent. Not a weapon you keep equipped at all times, but a weapon virtually every build should have handy.

Reduvia- If there is a dagger you should routinely be pressing R1 with more than a few times, it's Redvuia. Its weapon skill does nasty damage too. All of its attacks cause horrendous bleed buildup, with a base 50 bleed compared to the usual 38 on daggers, and no Occult dagger ever catches up to it. A horrible thing to fight on a bad connection because no amount of dodging will stop the blood loss, and even if the procs are rolled, the stagger can be enough to kill.

Straight Swords- Straight swords have an excellent dual wield moveset and a good amount of speed. A single sword is a good deal worse, but still not bad. St. Trina's has awful AR but sleep is disgusting.

Claymore- Ol' Reliable remains the king of the greatswords. The unique crouch poke and thrust R2s make its moveset one of the best for roll catching and depleting enemy player's health bars. Many different ashes of war work wonderfully on it, making it a difficult weapon to predict as well.

Greatswords (B)- The "B" moveset greatswords - Knight's, Banished Knight's, and Inseperable. Commonly known as the "Dark Souls II" moveset. These swooping R1s have faster hyperarmor than the "A" moveset, and JR1->R1 is a true combo, which then opens up several L2 options for roll catching.

Zweihander- Low weight and requirements make the Zwei the easiest to incorporate in any build, and therefore the best of the colossal swords, as it is the hardest to predict. Waves of Darkness? Giant Hunt? Stamp Upward? Lightning Slash? Storm Stomp? Poison Mist? You won't know until it hits you. Excellent length, thrusting R2s, manageable stamina consumption. Low weight also means stacking poise is easier compared to other colossals, and can free up a talisman slot.

Heavy Thrusting Swords- The running R2 is the closest thing to fast travel you get without opening your map. An outstanding rundown weapon with a fine suite of attacks besides. Epee is generally eschewed for Stitcher, but I like Epee R2s for roll catching. Helice is a menace especially on high latency, and Cragblade L2 has surprising hyper armor and damage.

Shamshir- A near-strict-upgrade compared to the scimitar, with great reach and better damage but the same moveset. Its low requirements and excellent moveset make it a fabulous inclusion on any build, but it does especially well physical with lightning or rot grease. Essentially the only curved sword that you should use two-handed.

Curved Swords- PSL1 with or even without status is gross. Good damage for their speed. Decent running attacks, and good use of spinning slash and sword dance. A very strong weapon class but one with a surprising amount of redundancy. If not dual wielding, Shamshir is the clearly superior choice.

Thrusting Swords- the non-Cleanrot thrusting swords are still good. Estoc R2s are not the roll catching machines they once were, but are still fun mixups for when you get bored of the efficiency of spamming thrusts. Frozen Needle has low AR, but applies frost and has some decent combos.

Katana (bleed)- Uchigatana, meteoric ore blade, and Rivers of Blood are all a step below Moonveil and Nagakiba, but are still very strong. Why is Rivers here?, you ask. Because it's really only strong in a gank, but gankers don't know how to use it well and just spam the L2. But, regular katana moves (especially dual wielded) that inflict blood loss are good.

Hand of Malenia- On its own, it's essentially a slightly stronger Keen Nagakiba that cannot be greased, but with enough poise, Waterfowl Dance can kill an aggressive host and all their friends in one go, and any survivors can be easily run down with running R2s.

Marika's Hammer- Many invasions can be won just by pressing L2. Generous area of effect with ridiculous damage and awkward timing that most co-op players don't know how to dodge.

Halberds- All three movesets (halberd, glaive, swordspear) are quite good. Good selection of ashes of war, combo potential, hyperarmor, long reach, rundown ability, and respectable damage.

Urumi- Head-and-shoulders above other whips. Highest dexterity scaling in the game while Keen infused, making it a decent thunderbolt / beast's roar spammer, but is also deadly on its own with endure or storm stomp and grease. R2s have surprising reach and damage, and crouch R1 is a great rollcatch and punish.

Fists- excluding Grafted Dragon. Caesti have the best overall moveset, with a deadly R2 stagger and great speed. Manifers are a bit weaker, but still potent. Bladed fists have the best rundown attacks of the bunch. Very high damage for their speed, and quick recovery times make them a safe, low-commitment option. Virtual zero weight allows you to put all your equip load into defense.

Glintstone Staves- Whichever one (or combination of two) produces the best output for your spell suite and stats. Sorcery is good. Invaders will likely be drawn to the efficiency of Carian Sword and Haima spells, while co-opers prefer the damage potential of Comet, Adula's Moonblade, and spammability of Star Shower and Death Rancor. Regal Scepter L2 can stunlock and exceed 1000 damage with Alexander Shard and enough intelligence.

Sacred Seals- See above. Incantations are perhaps slightly worse for direct combat than sorceries, but their buffs are much better. Dragon communion co-opers can still ruin an invader's day, Frenzy is awful to deal with on latency, Placidusax can get instant ledge knock kills, and Giantsflame Take Thee can one-shot. There's also the max speed Gurranq-Wrath combo, and Catch Flame is just a good spell.

B

Greatswords (A)- the "A" moveset is commonly known as the bastard sword moveset. Vertical slam two-handed R1s, wide sweep R2s; sweep R1s and slam R2s when one-handed. Just broadly worse than Claymore and the B moveset, with a notable lack of combo potential. Still, in practiced hands, greatswords are always a threat. There are a metric ton of greatswords with this moveset and unique Ashes of War; any of them not mentioned elsewhere are right here in B tier.

Ordovis's Greatsword- Good strength scaling, and an L2 with fast hyper armor and good synergy with multiple talismans, make this one of the better somberstone Greatswords (A). Softcapped strength and enough faith for buffs is a fine build, so you don't need to invest specifically for this weapon. Its L2 is important but not the only thing worth doing with the sword.

Death's Poker- A thoughtless design, but not an awful tool for the intelligence character's toolbox. Completely unremarkable as a direct damage weapon, it has split damage, a bad base moveset, and wonky scalings. While the sword itself has E scaling for intelligence, its L2 scales exclusively with intelligence. So this is not a weapon, it's a sorcery catalyst. Both of the L2 attacks are good in the right situation, but this is a hardswap weapon that is only considerable for its L2. If you want to do greatsword attacks, look to Helphen's Steeple or Dark Moon Greatsword.

Blasphemous Blade- This is a very difficult weapon to tier. As a bastard sword, it's fine, though its triple-scaling split AR is likely to be on the lower side at meta levels. Its L2 is slow and predictable, but the damage is horrific and also heals the user for about half a flask on hit. On poor connections, the user may still heal on a miss. Invaders can use it to great effect against aggressive teams, and co-opers can use it to great effect on laggy connections and as part of a projectile spam. But it also gets people backstabbed easily, so it is best placed in B.

Dark Moon Greatsword- Its buffed R2s are improved by Godfrey Icon, Alexander Shard, and any magic damage boosts, so this sword can fairly easily one-shot. Connecting with both sword and beam, and procing frost, can do thousands of damage in an instant. However, the buff animation is slow, and simply spamming R2 beams is not a reliable strategy. Probably the best direct combat intelligence greatsword, but a cold Greatsword (B) has better combos.

Sacred Relic Sword- This is an S in arena brawls. Extremely annoying to face as an invader, but more annoying than it is actually threatening.

Colossal Swords- Greatsword's superb length, hyper armor, and AR make it great at killing players in a single combo or L2 attack, but can be unreliable on lag. Watchdog and Troll's Golden Sword are generally worse, but not by enough to drop them a tier.

Grafted Blade Greatsword- There's no real reason to attack with Grafted rather than Greatsword, but Oath of Vengeance is great and a decent hardswap buff, especially at mid level. If you do attack with it, it's gonna hurt, just, Greatsword is better and longer and can have an additional (very powerful) attack.

Ruins Greatsword- Too stubby to make use of its great power in normal attacks, but its L2 has a truckload of hyper armor and can obliterate teams. Charged R2 gimmick is cute but ineffective.

Starscourge Greatsword- The paired moveset is pretty terrible, and gankers never seem to make good use of this weapon, but the super wide-range L2 can be used to ledge knock even without line of sight. Niche use, but an instant kill is an instant kill.

Maliketh's Black Blade- Likely to have superlative AR for a strength/faith character, and its L2 is not the worst, but it doesn't have any true combos to speak of, so in most cases the Greatsword is harder to predict and more likely to kill an opponent without letting them run away and heal.

Curved Greatswords- Their moment in the sun was fairly short, but CGS still have a good moveset and high AR for their speed. Except Zamor. Morgott's was briefly the best of the lot, but its build is restrictive and Cursed Blood Slice is now merely good instead of broken.

Cleavers- Iron is generally better than Celebrant's but they're comparable. Club R1s, and very funny and surprisingly effective chase R2s. As axes, they also get boosted damage with Wild Strikes and can use Spinning Slash, unlike actual clubs. Better suited to duels than invasions most of the time.

Warped Axe- Excellent scalings in both heavy and occult, even decent when cold or blood infused. One of the highest AR spinning slashes in the game, but compared to Nagakiba's length and innate bleed, it can't quite measure up. Its base moveset is better than the default axe kit, but that's not saying much.

Stone Club- Huge AR and the excellent, spammable Club R1s with decent hyperarmor. Uncharged Barbaric Roar true combos.

Eleonora's Poleblade- A bleed twinblade is a great place to start, and the L2 has surprising amounts of hyperarmor. Sadly, however, it cannot stunlock and confirm its full damage the way a generic twinblade with Spinning Slash can. The split damage and high requirements mean that a bloodflame blade (or blood-infused) spinning slash twinblade is often a better choice.

Bows- Sleep Pulley Crossbow is effective and annoying. Bows with sleep arrows are slightly less effective, but possibly even more annoying. Archery has never been, and likely never will be, a reliable primary means of winning combat in From Software games (golem arrow greatbows excluded, of course) but this is the best it has ever been. Stacking up all the damage boosts in the game still amounts to you jump attacking and running away while you do no more than 10% of your target's HP per shot.

C

Glintstone Kris- Glintstone Dart is a terrifyingly powerful weapon skill for its speed and cost, and can be augmented by a wide array of buffs to approach one-shot potential. However, it's a one-trick pony with only the generic dagger moveset to fall back on.

Black Knife- Destined Death will often connect even through well-timed dodges, at least inflicting the debuff if the actual damage does not register. Can be a decent option in high latency fights, but its L2 is its only sell.

Marais Executioner's Sword- Eochaid's Dancing Blade is not spammable and does not combo terribly well off the greatsword moveset. Its unique R2s are generally worse even than moveset A; it lacks the reach of Claymore thrusts and the area of effect of bastard sword sweeps, meaning your opponent can roll backwards or to the side and probably not get rollcaught. However, Dancing Blade is an almost guaranteed death sentence with a full hit and the right talismans, and it has hyperarmor. Try it uncharged as a heal punish.

Hand Axe- Despite its shorter reach, the speed of the hand axe makes it an excellent sidearm for strength builds to complement slower weapons, and is one of the better choices in the category as a main weapon.

Icerind Hatchet- Slightly longer than hand axe, and deals frostbite without dealing magic damage. It is stuck on hoarfrost stomp and scales primarily with dexterity, though, so it will have a tougher time finding a build than hand axe.

Ripple Axe- A very far cry from ripple halberd, but it can accept grease and has S arcane scaling. Moveset is ever-so-slightly better than default battle axe.

Club- Stone Club, if it was a bit shorter and weaker. But it is a club.

Nox Flowing Hammer- Flowing Form is decent, with lots of active frames, long reach, and multiple hits that don't deflect off walls. Beyond that, it is a hammer.

Ringed Finger- The weapon skill is funnier than it is powerful, but it is quite powerful. Excellent length for direct combat, but is still stuck with the lackluster hammer moveset besides.

Bastard's Stars- Establishes itself as the greatest of the flails by never using the flail moveset. This is an L2 machine, nothing more, but its version of Nebula is quite good.

Great Hammers- With their relative speed for their size, good hyperarmor, and impressive damage, great hammers should not be underestimated. They also shouldn't be overestimated, though, because their moveset is still predictable, being almost entirely vertical slams and lacking access to a good number of ashes of war.

Godslayer's Greatsword- The negatives of this weapon are its restrictive build - dex-leaning quality with a faith requirement - and its total lack of hyper armor on the L2 as of current patch. And those are big negatives. But the R1s are quite good, and have a drastically different speed to allow R2s (which enjoy normal colossal sword motion values) to serve as more effective mixups. Tiny stamina costs for its size and damage. Though the AR seems to be just lower than blasphemous blade's, colossal sword motion values mean this should hit harder in virtually all cases. You can try to make it work, but why go to all the trouble, when crouch poke -> L2 with another colossal sword is often sufficient for a win?

Colossal Weapons- High hyperarmor and hitstun opens up some trade into roll catch potential with the backstep attack. The sombers do not drastically change the playstyle, though Fallingstar Beast Jaw does offer low-commitment poke and heal punish with Gravity Bolt, and has the longest reach, making it arguably the best in class.

Reapers- Can make excellent use of certain ashes of war and are quite scary on Arcane builds. Scythe can combo charged R2 into Loretta's Slash, but, good luck with that. They're fun and fine, but probably won't win too many tournaments or be sufficient to 3v1 Redmane Castle ganks. Reapers would be dramatically improved if their first R1 was not so easily sidestepped.

Whips- non-Urumi whips are decent, but really more annoying to fight than they are actually good. The somber L2s have niche uses but are largely unremarkable; whips are a standard attack weapon class, and you are almost always better off with endure, storm stomp, or bloodhound's step.

Grafted Dragon- It's still a fist, but you need a second fist weapon in order to actually have the two-handed moveset (which you can do with the secondary fist weapon on its own anyway, barring a second Grafted Dragon), and you trade the absurd power of the Ash of War system for a very funny but not terribly powerful attack.

Light Bows- There's really no good reason to use these, but they can still spam sleep arrows, so they don't deserve to go any lower than this.

Fingerprint Stone Shield- While two-handed, even if you get guard broken, you can't be critically hit. This is true of all greatshields, but Fingerprint has the best numbers both for blocking and for attacking. Arcane scaling still scales up madness buildup, at the cost of damage negation. Difficult to reliably connect with, but can be quite the headache to deal with if the person wielding it knows what they're doing.

D

Daggers- Dagger R1s deal small enough amounts of poise damage that even on the first R1, opponents with just medium armor can withstand it and not stagger. Any generic dagger, any dagger not mentioned at a higher tier, and the normal attack moveset for daggers in general is not viable for fighting other players. Daggers lack combo potential, and with their short reach, they are substandard choices even for phantom hit status spam. Use a non-Reduvia dagger (read: Misericorde) for critical hits, or L2 spam; to the essential exclusion of all else.

Troll Knight's Sword- This poor thing was just done no favors. Locked to a weak L2 that is available as an ash of war for any infusible colossal. Split damage that hinders its thrust attack counter damage potential. Narrow character build restrictions. Shorter than Zweihander but heavier and with higher requirements. Just use Zwei.

Zamor Curved Sword- Awful base damage for its class, worse scalings than Bloodhound, slow R1s, pitiful reach, can't be buffed, L2 is just a worse version of Thunderstorm. No noteworthy combos and it isn't even especially lightweight. Any time you want to press R1 or R2, use any other CGS and things will go better for you. Any time you want to press L2, just use Stormhawk. A sadly purposeless weapon in PVP.

Standard Axes- This refers to the generic moveset of axes such as Battle Axe and Jawbone Axe (not hatchets like the hand axe, cleavers, or warped axe / ripple blade). They lack reach, hyper armor, and combo ability. They are awful powerstanced and don't do anything a straight or curved sword couldn't do better.

Forked Hatchet- You could be touching an unmoving opponent and miss with this weapon. It's so short. Leave it in the storage box. The only use it could attempt to claim is bleed spam, and you should look to axes for that the same way you look for cabbage in the dairy aisle.

Greataxes- Greataxes are slow enough to be easily reaction rolled. They are only viable for sword dance (but curved swords combo with sword dance better), and jump attack spam (which can get cheeky wins but is easily beaten by someone who knows how to backstab). The somber ones lack competitive weapon skills, with Axe of Godrick currently bugged to have no hyperarmor during the L2.

Hammers- Excluding clubs. Much like axes, hammers do not have enough reach or combo potential to keep up with faster weapons. They at least have hyper armor, but the days of mace rollcatches are long gone, and they have no unique ashes of war to carve them a niche.

Flails- Hammers, but worse. At least you can't get parried. Anyone who takes PVP (too) seriously has one of these in their inventory for one nefarious purpose only.

Crossbows- Any crossbow without "pulley" in its name is not a good option for fighting other players. They have a significantly slower rate of fire than bows without much by way of compensation.

Erdtree Greatbow- The only thing noteworthy that the Erdtree Greatbow can do is save a dedicated strength/faith build a few points of dexterity compared to Radahn's and golem bows, and it can technically still fire golem arrows for ledge knocks. Beyond that, even with heavy investment in faith and using golden great arrows, it just does not do enough damage compared to other greatbows. You can still 'golden vow' yourself with golden great arrows using another greatbow, and this one is stuck with Through and Through.

Shields- Besides Fingerprint Stone, no shield is a particularly potent PVP weapon. You can maybe get some funny montage clips with One-Eyed Shield, but you shouldn't really be blocking with a shield in PVP too often, let alone attacking with one.

Torches- Very funny. If you intend to win, though, put it away.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3195528663

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