We included the thrusting shields because they are a new weapon class and you can equip a bunch of ashes of war on them that are inaccessible to other shields.

S+ Tier: Bloodfiend Arm, Carian Thrusting Shield

S Tier: Fire Knights Greatsword, Black Steel Great Hammer, Messmer Soldier Spear, Great Katana, Backhand Blade

A+ Tier: Milady, Sword Lance, Freyja's Greatsword, Pata

A Tier: Queelign Greatsword, Beast Claw, Black Steel Twin Blades, Dry Leaf Arts, Dane's Footwork

A- Tier: Fire Knight Shortsword, Messmer Soldier Axe, Lizard Greatsword

B Tier: Dueling Shield, Bloodfiend Fork, Smithscript Dagger, Lightning Perfume

C Tier: Smithscript Greathammer, Swift Spear, Smithscript Cirque, Chilling Perfume, Frenzyflame Perfume, Golem Fist, Smithscript Axe, Smithscript Spear, Firespark Perfume, Main Gauche

The following is some feedback from REDDIT users on the use of the following weapons:

-Fire Knights Greatsword is so good on faith build.

-Messmer soldier spear is so good since it has the heavy attack of the Treespear and it’s infusible. We use it with the new flame-spear ash of war and it works wonders.

- Even for PvE, Occult Great Katana with Blood Tax AoW slaps. Add Crimson-Sapping (attacks Heal) + Bloodsucking (Increased 20% damage but drains HP) Cracked Tear along with Malenias Great Rune and No need for HP flasks. Just spam the weapon art.

- Backhand Blade: The charged R2 does a ton of poise in a good-sized lunge, and even the uncharged neutral R2 seems pretty good on that.

- Even if Milady isn't the strongest thing around and has stance damage issues, tossing wing stance on it with that hardware and building into it is one of the most fun ways to play, and wing stance makes up for the stance damage issue.

- Messmer Soldier Axe: Hits super hard, has good stance damage, has fast light attacks, has special effect built-in with those heavies, doesn't weigh much, good enough range. Its simplicity is what allows it to shine in a DLC with so many useless things because of that flashiness.

- Lizard Greatsword: Not just for its unique position within the Greatsword category, but even as a standalone weapon it is objectively very strong.

-Smithscript Greathammer: No one can disagree that the Smithscript Greathammer is a fun weapon to use, but with the infusion damage nerfs, it is simply outcompeted by other weapons in its class. The main issue is that Greathammers' heavy attacks are normally good, coming out reasonably quickly and providing extraordinarily high stance damage, whereas the Smith script hammer sacrifices it for a project that takes forever to fully charge and deals average damage and stance damage in contrast. In the time you waste loading up and rotating around for your throw, you could have smashed the opponent twice with a tremendous mace and been on the cusp of a stance break.