Legendary Weapon Tier List

[ZanaLyrander]

Okay, so originally I wanted to do a overall weapon tier list, but for the non-unique weapons that you get multiple of, that seems fairly obvious, so instead I want to compare and contrast the unique weapons, the Hero's Relics and Sacred Weapons. I'm very much open to feedback on this tier list.

S Tier: S Tier is for BiS weapons, if you can use these, why wouldn't you?
The Inexhaustible - Easily the best of the Sacred Weapons, there's really no contest. Being able to spam combat arts with an archer is crazy strong, the healing is just gravy.
Suttungr's Mystery - Combined with the cooldown reduction from Gremory or Dark Bishop, this results in minuscule cooldowns for even the highest level spells, just nuke everything.
Areadbhar - Crazy strong combat art with matching crest, and does damage through guard.
Thunderbrand - Spamming combat arts is always morally correct, and having a unique combat art with a matching crest is nice.
Freikugel/Crusher - Both have strong unique combat arts with matching crest, and chew through stun gauges, which one's better really just comes down to whether you've got higher Strength or Magic
Vajra-Mushti - Crazy strong combat art with matching crest, deals more damage when you're hurt.
Sword of the Creator/Dark Creator's Sword - How exactly the 'hit twice' passive works in terms of calculating damage is a little unclear, but these are damn strong regardless, and really powerful with effects that activate based on number of hits.

A Tier:
Amyr - Powerful unique combat art for Edelgard, and an ability that allows more frequent use of specials and awakening.
Sword of Seiros - Purely defensive abilities, but grants so much healing that you're basically immortal, especially with matching crest.
Blutgang - Very useful combat art with matching crest that heals the wielder and is effective against cavalry, and increase magic crit chance.
Lance of Ruin - High might, high crit chance on combat arts, and a strong combat art with matching crest.
Spear of Assal - Effective against cavalry, which are very common, and provides good healing, especially with matching crest.
Axe of Ukonvasara - Effective against armor, which are otherwise hard to hurt with pure physical attacks, and provides good healing, especially with matching crest.
Failnaught - Very powerful combat art with matching crest, but honestly without a matching crest you're better off with a strong Parthia.

B Tier: At this point, a regalia weapon with good weapon attributes is probably comparable, possibly better depending on the attributes and your build
Lúin - Good combat art with matching crest, but the periodic Bolganone with strong attacks isn't reliable enough.
All Other Sacred Weapons - Aside from the four Sacred Weapons already listed above, the rest of the Sacred weapons are pretty much exactly the same. They're still quite powerful, and the healing is very nice, but there are frequently better choices.
Ichor Scroll - As with Lúin, the periodic Nosferatu with strong attacks isn't reliable enough. If you have the matching crest and don't know Abraxas, it can be handy, but you can also learn Abraxas from the adjutant system, even if it is a pain.

C Tier: You're better off using a regalia weapon.
Hrotti - Can be useful for some weird builds with high strength characters, but that's it. Shez can easily teach Dark Spikes to anyone, so even the matching crest spell isn't all that impressive.

Edited July 27, 2022 by ZanaLyrander

[Sire]

Glancing at the list...

Hrotti - While it is the most underwhelming relic weapon, it does have a use when mastering classes for STR characters (temporarily using a MAG class to master it, then its back to STR classes). Aside from that though, it's practically useless, especially during endgame when everything is leveled/mastered.

Creator/Dark Creator -- Far as I'm concerned, it's essentially double damage since it hits twice and it has wonderful synergy with "Hit-Count" personals.
-- My favorite build is Dark Creator Sword on Shez with Sylvain's personal. Shez builds up the hitcounter so quickly and it does tons of damage, so it not having a unique Combat Art or unique "weapon modification" doesn't matter too much for me. Since this Sword has no Relic requirement (only a Sword Rank of A if I recall correctly), it can easily be used by anyone. // Personally, I'll put the Dark Creator Sword up to S-Rank, although I will admit I'm biased on this sword.
-- Sword of the Creator is neat, but as it's practically Byleth/Sothis only (other characters can equip it but it seems pointless to do so), I'm content to leave it at A-Rank. Sure, it gets its own unique weapon art, but it's restricted to the two characters.

Vajra-Mushti & Failnaught -- If the Vajra-Mushti is in S due to its Combat Art (which requires a matching Crest), then why not Failnaught? The Wind God Combat Art may be one of the best in the game, and the extra range that Failnaught provides is also appreciated.
-- EDIT: Failnaught provides Fallen Star, not Wind God (which is Claude's special combat art). I made a mistake writing this post.
---- Remember, you can easily access the "Relic Weapon Arts" if you equip the correct Crest Accessory, so it's possible to use Failnaught's Wind God Fallen Star on anyone provided they have the Crest of Riegan equipped.
--- Granted, some characters have their own unique accessories they they should be using, or may get more use out of certain regular accessories (such as Critical Rings).

Also, should the "Unique Weapons" such as the Knight Captain's Sword be ranked as well?

Edited July 27, 2022 by Sire

[Fabulously Olivier]

5 minutes ago, Sire said:

Glancing at the list...

Hrotti - While it is the most underwhelming relic weapon, it does have a use when mastering classes for STR characters (temporarily using a MAG class to master it, then its back to STR classes). Aside from that though, it's practically useless, especially during endgame when everything is leveled/mastered.

Creator/Dark Creator -- Far as I'm concerned, it's essentially double damage since it hits twice and it has wonderful synergy with "Hit-Count" personals.
-- My favorite build is Dark Creator Sword on Shez with Sylvain's personal. Shez builds up the hitcounter so quickly and it does tons of damage, so it not having a unique Combat Art or unique "weapon modification" doesn't matter too much for me. Since this Sword has no Relic requirement (only a Sword Rank of A if I recall correctly), it can easily be used by anyone. // Personally, I'll put the Dark Creator Sword up to S-Rank, although I will admit I'm biased on this sword.
-- Sword of the Creator is neat, but as it's practically Byleth/Sothis only (other characters can equip it but it seems pointless to do so), I'm content to leave it at A-Rank. Sure, it gets its own unique weapon art, but it's restricted to the two characters.

Vajra-Mushti & Failnaught -- If the Vajra-Mushti is in S due to its Combat Art (which requires a matching Crest), then why not Failnaught? The Wind God Combat Art may be one of the best in the game, and the extra range that Failnaught provides is also appreciated.
-- Remember, you can easily access the "Relic Weapon Arts" if you equip the correct Crest Accessory, so it's possible to use Failnaught's Wind God on anyone provided they have the Crest of Riegan equipped.
--- Granted, some characters have their own unique accessories they they should be using, or may get more use out of certain regular accessories (such as Critical Rings).

Also, should the "Unique Weapons" such as the Knight Captain's Sword be ranked as well?

Failnaught doesn't provide Wind God. It provides Fallen Star - which, IMO, sucks ass in this game.

[Sire]

4 minutes ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

Failnaught doesn't provide Wind God. It provides Fallen Star - which, IMO, sucks ass in this game.

Ah, I stand corrected. I thought Wind God was Failnaught's skill, not Claude's.
-- That said, Fallen Star is still decent being a nice AoE skill that can disrupt crowds, but when compared to things like Atrocity or Vajra Mushti, yeah it is a bit underwhelming.

Going back to change the post.

[Fabulously Olivier]

I think weapons should have multiple rankings. One for specific preferred users and one for everyone else. Because there IS a cost to having to use your accessory slot for a crest item. For example:

 

Spear of Assal on Ferdinand is probably an S tier weapon. He has Lifeforce AND Impossible Feat, which have their downsides mitigated heavily by the combination of SoA and Ochain Shield. On anyone else, the weapon is likely A tier.

 

Linhardt gets more out of the Cethlean items than Flayn does, because he has Lifeforce.

[ZanaLyrander]

38 minutes ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

I think weapons should have multiple rankings. One for specific preferred users and one for everyone else. Because there IS a cost to having to use your accessory slot for a crest item. For example:

 

Spear of Assal on Ferdinand is probably an S tier weapon. He has Lifeforce AND Impossible Feat, which have their downsides mitigated heavily by the combination of SoA and Ochain Shield. On anyone else, the weapon is likely A tier.

 

Linhardt gets more out of the Cethlean items than Flayn does, because he has Lifeforce.

I considered doing something like this, but it seemed a tad overcomplicated. Some weapons are way more useful for certain characters than they are in general, it's true, it's just more difficult to rate them taking specific characters into mind (with the exception of weapons that can't really be used well by anyone except specific characters like the Sword of the Creator or Amyr). It's still a very valid observation.

1 hour ago, Sire said:

Creator/Dark Creator -- Far as I'm concerned, it's essentially double damage since it hits twice and it has wonderful synergy with "Hit-Count" personals.
-- My favorite build is Dark Creator Sword on Shez with Sylvain's personal. Shez builds up the hitcounter so quickly and it does tons of damage, so it not having a unique Combat Art or unique "weapon modification" doesn't matter too much for me. Since this Sword has no Relic requirement (only a Sword Rank of A if I recall correctly), it can easily be used by anyone. // Personally, I'll put the Dark Creator Sword up to S-Rank, although I will admit I'm biased on this sword.
-- Sword of the Creator is neat, but as it's practically Byleth/Sothis only (other characters can equip it but it seems pointless to do so), I'm content to leave it at A-Rank. Sure, it gets its own unique weapon art, but it's restricted to the two characters.

I admit, I adore the Dark Creator Sword, that is my weapon of choice for Shez as well, and since I use Rejuvenation on Shez, it makes them virtually immortal with how fast they rack up hits. It probably could be S tier, as could the Sword of the Creator (it'd be weird to have them in separate tiers, they have the exact same effect, Sword of the Creator is just Byleth/Sothis specific and also has a unique combat art). I'm still undecided. I feel like Thunderbrand theoretically should be stronger, but I admit that has not been my experience.

As for Failnaught, Fallen Star is powerful, but not as impressive as Eviscerate. Also, it should be noted that I was going for Best in Slot for each weapon type for each S tier weapon. Vajra-Mushti might not be quite as strong as the other S tier weapons, but it's definitely the best gauntlet weapon. Meanwhile, Failnaught is good if you have the crest of Reigan, but kinda underwhelming if you don't, and either way it still can't compete with The Inexhaustible.

Edit: Oh, and I didn't bother with the other unique weapons like the Knight Captain's Sword most of them can't really compete to be honest. They're by no means bad, but they're not in the same league as the legendary weapons.

Edited July 27, 2022 by ZanaLyrander

[Fabulously Olivier]

6 minutes ago, ZanaLyrander said:

I considered doing something like this, but it seemed a tad overcomplicated. Some weapons are way more useful for certain characters than they are in general, it's true, it's just more difficult to rate them taking specific characters into mind (with the exception of weapons that can't really be used well by anyone except specific characters like the Sword of the Creator or Amyr). It's still a very valid observation.

I admit, I adore the Dark Creator Sword, that is my weapon of choice for Shez as well, and since I use Rejuvenation on Shez, it makes them virtually immortal with how fast they rack up hits. It probably could be S tier, as could the Sword of the Creator (it'd be weird to have them in separate tiers, they have the exact same effect, Sword of the Creator is just Byleth/Sothis specific and also has a unique combat art). I'm still undecided. I feel like Thunderbrand theoretically should be stronger, but I admit that has not been my experience.

As for Failnaught, Fallen Star is powerful, but not as impressive as Eviscerate. Also, it should be noted that I was going for Best in Slot for each weapon type for each S tier weapon. Vajra-Mushti might not be quite as strong as the other S tier weapons, but it's definitely the best gauntlet weapon. Meanwhile, Failnaught is good if you have the crest of Reigan, but kinda underwhelming if you don't, and either way it still can't compete with The Inexhaustible.

If you aren't using availability as a factor in character rankings, why would the restriction on SotC be a factor here? It's an S tier weapon on the two characters who can actually use it.

 

I'm also of the opinion that Vajra-Mushti is S tier not just for its weapon type, but in general. The one-punch man combat art is that good.

[ZanaLyrander]

1 minute ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

If you aren't using availability as a factor in character rankings, why would the restriction on SotC be a factor here? It's an S tier weapon on the two characters who can actually use it.

 

I'm also of the opinion that Vajra-Mushti is S tier not just for its weapon type, but in general. The one-punch man combat art is that good.

I'm not factoring in the character restriction on SotC, I'm just undecided on whether it and the Dark Creator Sword are as good as Thunderbrand. I suppose they could all be S tier. Screw it, I'm moving them up.

And I have to admit, Eviscerate is frankly absurdly powerful.

[Pie Burritos]

23 hours ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

Failnaught doesn't provide Wind God. It provides Fallen Star - which, IMO, sucks ass in this game.

I agree, however there is one relatively good usage for Fallen Star, which is destroying large monsters. Since the monster is so large, each individual arrow will hit and chew through the monster's health bar like no tomorrow. I wouldn't bump Failnaught up just because of that, but it does at least have some kind of use. Otherwise it's just kind of slow and the damage against smaller targets is underwhelming.

[ZanaLyrander]

7 minutes ago, Pie Burritos said:

I agree, however there is one relatively good usage for Fallen Star, which is destroying large monsters. Since the monster is so large, each individual arrow will hit and chew through the monster's health bar like no tomorrow. I wouldn't bump Failnaught up just because of that, but it does at least have some kind of use. Otherwise it's just kind of slow and the damage against smaller targets is underwhelming.

I've heard that, and it makes me want to try giving Failnaught and the Riegan Crest Stone to Hapi, just to use her to annihilate monsters. Since Fallen Star does damage based on Mag rather than Str, she'll probably be more effective with it than Claude himself ironically, Claude's magic stat isn't great, I usually give him The Inexhaustible instead of Failnaught, unless I have multiple archers.