We're going to be ranking all of the Elden Ring weapon classes in the game from the best to the worst for PVE. 

Elden Ring Weapon Type Ranking 2023 & Best Weapons for Each Class After 1.09 Patch

Elden Ring presents players with an extensive array of distinctive weapons to wield. Within the game, the weapons are categorized into 25 distinct types and their usability is contingent upon specific stats, necessitating a minimum level of certain attributes to effectively wield them. Consequently, certain weapon types are only suitable for specific types of playthroughs. However, players can take solace in the fact that there are more than 100 weapons available in the game, ensuring a wide selection to accommodate various character builds. But not every weapon type has equal strength in Elden Ring, some may be dominated by the most powerful items in the game, while others may be almost untouched despite their flashy looks. Therefore we rank the Elden Ring weapon types from S tier to C tier to figure out the most powerful weapons now!

• 1 - Greatswords (S Tier)

Five of the best weapons in the entire game are greatswords, and recently they actually have buffed. Their movesets in terms of how fast they come out, the heavy attacks are extremely quick now, and the running attacks are extremely quick. Overall it's going to have to be the greatest number one purely because of the weapon options that they get themselves self-explanatory.

Best Greatswords: Iron Greatsword, Gargoyle's Blackblade, Blasphemous Blade, Dark Moon Greatsword, Death's Poker, Ordovis's Greatsword

• 2 - Spears (S Tier)

Much like the Colossal swords, Spears have amazing options and the difference is that the moveset of the spear is actually good because you know poking attacks are amazing, piercing damage is really good, and the power stands combo with the spears is just like 10 out of 10 - they come out so fast, do so much damage, and have a lot of range. Now the downside is that they do consume a lot of stamina, but it's a fair trade-off, just do the balancing itself. At the weapon options, Cross-Naginata has an insanely good light attack combo, inherence blade, and good range; Clayman's Harpoon is good for magic builds, the Bolt of Gransax is definitely one of the best weapons in the entire game, Death Ritual Spear is a boss melting machine. So the options are like 10 out of 10 too. 

Best Spears: Cross-Naginata, Clayman's Harpoon, Bolt of Gransax, Death Ritual Spear

• 3 - Colossal Swords

Though the moveset of Colossal Sword is very slow and doesn't really have much variety as well and like slow attacks, the crouching attacks are just amazing, you can expand those if you don't really care to use the light attack button at all. While the weapon options make the weapon class into Tier 3, Great Sword, Godslayer's Greatsword, and Ruins Greatsword, they just get a whole bunch of really good high damage. And they have great Ashes of War such as Giants Hunt and Lion's Claw, you're going to spot giant hunt onto any type of colossal weapon and have an absolutely amazing time.

Best Colossal Swords: Greatsword, Starscourge Greatsword, Godslayer's Greatsword, Grafted Blade Greatsword

• 4 - Katanas

Katanas do anything that you wanted to do and then some they have really good damage, good range, and insane movesets, they get inherent to Blade, and they have amazing Ash of War options and specific ones like Unsheath. It's amazing overall with the katanas, the only thing we don't really care about it much is the Power sense combo.

Best Katanas: Nagakiba, Moonveil, Dragonscale Blade

• 5 - Straight Swords

There are 15 straight swords in Elden Ring and honestly, like 10 of them are just completely mid, the other five are getting decent like the Lordsworn's Straight Sword. Sword of Night and Flame can be great for faith and intelligence builds. Everything else that the straight swords get is just top tier, amazing 10 out of 10. Their movesets are amazing on both one-handed and two-handed with a lot of variety, the power sense combos are almost just as good as the curved swords. They get so much variety with Ashes of War in terms of having short range, they have the poking attack types of Ashes of War and they do have something unique like the Square Off. Straight swords definitely deserve the top-five spot.

Straight Swords: Lordsworn's Straight Sword, Sword of Night and Flame, Regalia of Eochaid

• 6. Curved Swords

The only thing you know about the Curved Sword is the power stance combo, it doesn't matter what curved they're using if you have them power sense you're going be fine, just spam running attacks and spam the jumping attacks, and you'll just find a lot of success. There is borderline broken they're absolutely insane. 

Best Curved Swords: Wing of Astel, Bandit's Curved Sword, Scavenger's Curved Sword

• 7. Curved Greatswords

Curved Greatswords also have received multiple Buffs to where they're a lot quicker now, and have a lot less recovery animations. So there's going to be very solid picks at this point because those heavy attacks come out just as fast as the light attack sometimes which is absolutely insane. Their Ash of War options probably aren't the best because we don't really get anything for polearms or poking attacks, but their quick movesets are more than enough to make up for the entire thing with long rang. The actual weapon options themselves look at things like the Magma Wyrm's Scalesword is probably one of the best Firebase options obviously, and the Bloodhound's Fang is probably the top five weapons in this game. 

Curved Greatswords: Bloodhound's Fang, Magma Wyrm's Scalesword

• 8. Great Hammers

Great Hammers are very similar to the Greataxes, but the difference is that these just get more Poise damage which is probably going to be just a lot better. They're really quick, and get way more damage way more range, good stagger, and posture potential. And the weapon options with the great hammers themselves things like the Great Stars which is definitely one of the best options, and the Envoy's Long Horn is an absolute boss melting machine. The only thing that actually is lacking is probably the Ash of War potential because the great Axes spray gets a little bit more and better options, but this is definitely the most underrated weapon class in the entire game if you haven't tried them out definitely recommend that you do.

Best Great Hammers: Great Stars, Envoy's Long Horn

• 9. Halberds

This weapon class is probably going to be the most diverse because it has a whole bunch of different weapons that have differing movesets, have status effects, have different damage types, and things for almost every single element as well. But the moveset is probably the best part about this weapon class because you just get so much variety, you can get overhead slams, horizontal swipes, poking attacks, and more. And the actual options are that they're polearm and get very solid ashes.

Best Halberds: Guardian's Swordspear, Nightrider Glaive, Dragon Halberd

• 10. Great Spears

Great Spear weapons are just going to be amazing because of piercing damage and poise attacks. They get really good stagger, posture damage potential, as well good movesets. They're headed at the exact same time and obviously, power sense combos are headed at the exact same time. The Ash of War options are also good, you get things like Giant Hunt and Spectral Lance. The downside to the great spears is that there's only one that can be infused in the Lance which is upsetting, hopefully, the DLC does add more. But other options that you do get with Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear.

Best Great Spears: Lance, Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear

• 11. Greataxes (S Tier)

These weapons have been buffed so many times in the previous two patches to where they're just incredibly quick, that light attack combos, power stance combos, and running attacks heavy attacks are all so fast. Greataxes only get standard damage which is probably going to be the worst one and they don't really get as much posture damage as great hammers do. But things that they do excel in are the Ash of War options, they get solid things like Flaming Strike Sword and Dance Wild Strikes. Overall greataxe is definitely deserving of the A tier.

Best Greataxes:  Executioner's Greataxe, Great Omenkiller Cleaver, Rusted Anchor

• 12. Heavy Thrusting Swords

Heavy Thrusting Swords have probably the best one-handed and two-handed moveset in the entire game, they're just that good insane speed, good variety, good range, and good stagger potential. Those heavy running attacks are just absolutely cracked, they go insanely far really quickly power stance combo. As for the Ash of War options, they get stuff for both small-base weapons and larger-based weapons.

• 13. Twinblades (A Tier)

Twinblades can pop off in certain areas and definitely underperform others. Where they pop off is their power stance moveset, especially the jumping attacks you can just like to shred a whole bunch of enemies with these jumping attack builds especially with a status effect that is performed. Another area where they pop off is their Ash of War options, they probably have the best Ash of War options in the entire game that has everything for the small weapons, large weapons, and even polearm options as well.  Honestly, congrats to the Twinblades, they've really popped up that area as to where they underperform though, their movesets: one-handed and two-handed don't really care very much slow, don't really get much range the damage isn't really that great, it doesn't really go many daggers or posture damage potential. 

Best Twinblades: Eleonora’s Poleblade, Godskin Peeler, Gargoyle's Twinblade

• 14. Colossal Weapons (A Tier)

Colossal Weapons are like simultaneously the worst and the best weapon class at the exact same time. Basically, these weapons shred enemies, they can do insane damage in one hit. So if you use certain types of Ashes of War like the Lion's Claw with like any type of Colossal weapon or just use a heavy attack that goes to the Giant Crusher you'll find a lot of success. But the reason why they're the worst is because of their moveset,  it's just so terrible like one-headed. And then they're rolling attacks that is the worst thing about it.

Best Colossal Weapons: Lions' Claw

• 15. Fists (A Tier)

Fists and claws are very similar in terms of how they work when you can two-hand them to do the power sense combo, and the fist is better in certain areas because the charge attacks can do insane damage especially with like the Star Fist and the Spike Casters - definitely one of the best weapons in the entire game in that area.  Whereas the claw is better in terms of having like slash and piercing damage, they probably have the better moveset and more Azure War options albeit not that much to begin with, but the fist has to have more variety as well like weapons that cannot be infused like the Veteran's Prosthesis and Crafted Dragon. They can toss it up between which one's actually better or not, we just pick the fists over the claws probably because of the star fist itself.

Best Fists: Star Fist, Cipher Pata, Veteran's Prosthesis, Crafted Dragon

• 16. Claws (A Tier)

Claw is a very good weapon class option because when you are two-handed you do the power stance moveset, so you actually don't have to level up a particular or a secondary weapon. Claws have good power stances, very quick moveset, and good damage output. They have status effects or get 110 crit multiplier as well except for the venomous thing. But there are a few things that are definitely holding back the claws, they only have 4 options and there's not a single unique one among them. They are get average Ash of War options as well, there's not really anything that's too unique to the claw specifically. Probably the worst thing about them is their range and staggering potential, it's definitely noticeable against a bunch of different enemies, but with the range lacking you're going to miss a whole bunch of attacks against a whole bunch of different types of bosses. And you definitely notice that it's not going to be staggering very well, but the damage output definitely makes up for it hence why it can still get to the A tier.

Best Claws: Bloodhound Claws, Venomous Fang, Raptor Talons

• 17. Reapers/Scythes (A Tier)

Reaper does everything well but it doesn't do anything great, like looking at their moveset relatively slow but they can have some decent variety to it. It's a decent moveset one-handed and two-handed power stance or average, but it's not going to be as good as something like a great spear which is like a polearm equivalent. Their actual options can be decent, you can get a weapon like Phantom Slash but it's not going to be as good as the Halberts because they get more polearm options. We can hit around Shields well but there aren't really many shielded enemies in the game, we mean looking at like the range of these polearm weapons, it looks like they can be long but compared to something like halberds and great spares which are probably just as fast as they just get more range and they only really do slash damage. 

Best Reapers: Halo Scythe, Winged Scythe

• 18. Thrusting Swords (A Tier)

Now you're probably going to be surprised by this one because obviously poking attacks and piercing damage is really good and thrusting swords are really quick. But it is outclassed by Spears and Heavy Thrusting Swords because they are not that much slower and they just have a lot more range. With the spears, they get a much better power stance combo, better Ash of War options. With a heavy-thrusting sword, they just get a much better one-handed and two-handed moveset, and better Ash of War options. So the thrusting saw doesn't really benefit or much albeit, it is very quick and easy for us.

Best Thrusting Swords: Frozen Needle

• 19. Hammers (B Tier)

Hammers tend to be very average but they do have their own specific uses but once again they are the exact same weapons as Flails and Axes. In terms of their move sets, they do have the same Poise damage values as the Flails themselves and the charged heavy attacks actually come out at a respectable Pace, but they have this weird area with the Hammers in terms of having very short-range don't really get that greater damage and they're not really that quick. So at that point, we'd rather just use the curve swords and the straight swords just to do like better DPS. The point of the Hammers is to do good Poise-breaking potential because they can do just as much Poise damage as a colossal sword, but they don't stagger that well, so we'd rather have something like the great hammer which isn't even that much slower. They probably get better Ash of War options have more range and have way more damage and they can stagger do more Poise damage as well, so hammers are like this weird in-between areas where they don't really benefit either side that much. 

Best Hammers: Stone Club

• 20. Daggers (B Tier)

A lot of people use daggers but they're just kind of meant as secondary options to have something in your off-hand to use like a particular Ash of War whether we like Golden Vow or switch to your dagger to get a repost off with the mystery chord. It is very rarely we actually use the daggers as a primary option. We usually use the Black knife as a secondary option to use the actual word and switch back to our main weapon and as for the Reduvia is a really good weapon for early games but we feel like the Bloodblade we sure just outclasses it.  In terms of using them as the primary option, we don't really care for it due to how little Ranger they have and how little stagger damage they get as well. You can never stagger anything with this weapon, and when using its power stance, the combo itself tends to be very long, you get stuck in a three-hit combo. Weapons like the claws and the fist just do the exact same thing but a lot better, they'll just have more damage output and bring in better motion values with their heavier attacks.  

Best Daggers: Glenstone Chris, Black Knife, Reduvia

• 21. Flails (B Tier)

Flails have gone better over time and the direct upgrade to the axes, because they get strike damage and more posture damage as well and these actually do get an inherent bleed. But their moveset is exactly the same as the Hammers arguably probably even worse because their charged heavy attack of the Flail is so incredibly slow, and it does just as much Poise damage as a Charged attack of a Hammer and the hammer comes out like twice as far. Obviously, good things about the Flails are that: they do get bleed, and they do have decent guard counters as well. But like with how slow the moveset is and how little Ranger has, their Ash of War options as well as being that spinning chain is very upsetting. 

Best Flails: Bastard’s Stars

• 22. Axes (C Tier)

Starting off the worst thing about the axe is definitely going to be their slow moveset, especially how much range and damage these weapons actually do, especially power stance is probably the worst Power stance combo in the entire game - incredibly slow and the power sense doesn't offer any good stagger or posture damage potential whatsoever. And with the axes, they're just going to be outclassed by weapons like Hammers and potentially even Flails because they only do standard damage whereas the Flails and the Hammers do strike damage which is arguably just a better option as well and they do more Poise damage. 

Best Axes: Stormworks Axe, Rosus's Axe, Warped Axe,  Iron Cleaver 

• 23. Whips (C Tier)

Now the whips you can make good builds of these, but they're just going to be the worst by far because look at their Ash of War options, literally nothing going for them. Because there's not a singular actual world that actually hits with the weapon itself, there's no unique whip Ash of War, hopefully, they actually do get one for the DLC. There are still no critical attacks for the whips, they've been making these weapons for like 12 years but still haven't found a way to incorporate critical damage onto the whips. They're probably just as low as colossal weapons but they do just as much damage as straight swords which can be very annoying, especially when like one handing or two-handing it is not really going to be the best option. Look at their charging, heavy attacks in terms of how much posture damage that actually does do because obviously charge heavy attack. The best way to Poise break and with the whips they're just the worst ones even daggers and Claws do more posture damage with their charged heavy attacks which is very upsetting. Now obviously the trade-off is that they have a lot of range and obviously that can be very good against certain types of bosses, but they could still use a little bit of a damage bump as well. The best thing about these whips is that they're power-stancing attacks, especially like the jumping and running attacks really very good at status effect build-up, so obviously for some of the blade options that the whips do get, it makes it really good in that regard. Overall the whips are going to have to get at the bottom for those reasons.

Best Whips: Magma Whip Candlestick, Giant's Red Braid