Dark Souls 3 - A Comprehensive PVP Weapon Tier List by DamnNoHtml

Hey guys, I saw that Japanese tier list a while ago and disagreed with some of the choices on there, so I thought I'd make my own. Also, this includes every melee weapon in the game. Obviously these are just my opinions - not right, not wrong. I base my opinions off of fights at SL120 with highly skilled players, not random duelists.

Tiers are the same as scaling in Dark Souls. S being the best, E being the worst. Typically, a weapon in a tier higher than another will have an easier time beating a player of equal skill using the lower tier weapon. This is obviously not a golden rule.

Also note, the order things are listed in each class is not relevant, as in I don't find the Washing Pole to necessarily be better or worse than the Dark Sword.

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S tier - Weapons that are so good, you can reliably beat absolutely anything you encounter in the game, even if they are better than you. Mastering these weapons makes you an unfun nightmare to fight against.

• Estoc
• Gotthard Twinswords
• Carthus Curved Sword

A tier - Extremely useful weapons that either have an excellent gimmick to them, or are typically the most damaging or most efficient version of the weapon in its class.

• Dark Sword
• Washing Pole
• Onikiri and Ubadachi
• Rapier
• Ricard's Rapier
• Irithyll Rapier
• Uchigatana
• Chaos Blade
• Longsword
• Dragonslayer Spear
• Gargoyle Flame Spear
• Winged Knight Halberd
• Black Knight Glaive
• Glaive
• Red Hilted Halberd
• Lucerne
• Gundyr's Halberd
• Anri's Straight Sword (on a Quality hollow build only)
• Sunlight Straight Sword

B tier - Mostly solid weapons that may not be the best in their class, but can still easily take care of most players. Often these are weapons with the same movesets as higher tier classes, but with less range or damage, or they might be some of the best weapons in classes that aren't as effective.

• Storm Curved Sword
• Broadsword
• Shotel
• Scimitar
• Falchion
• Pontiff Knight Curved Sword
• Sellsword Twinblades
• Warden Twinblades
• Carthus Shotel
• Astora Greatsword
• Darkdrift
• Bloodlust
• Corvian Greatknife
• Dragonslayer Swordspear
• Immolation Tinder
• Partizan
• Halberd
• Crescent Axe
• Astora Straight Sword
• Shortsword
• Lothric Knight Sword
• Barbed Straight Sword
• Irithyll Straight Sword
• Morion Blade
• Claymore
• Hollowslayer Greatsword
• Moonlight Greatsword
• Black Knight Sword
• Thrall Axe
• Drang Twinspears

C tier - Weapons here are generally still somewhat decent, but start relying more on the opponent to make a mistake rather than you outplaying them. Also here are weaker versions of higher tier weapons in the same class.

• Black Blade
• Murakumo
• Exile Greatsword
• Old Wolf Curved Sword
• Carthus Curved Greatsword
• Crystal Sage's Rapier
• Bastard Sword
• Firelink Greatsword
• Flamberge
• Executioner's Greatword
• Wolf Knight's Greatsword
• Twin Prince's Greatsword
• Battle Axe
• Hand Axe
• Brigand Axe
• Dragonslayer's Axe
• Butcher Knife
• Man Serpent Hatchet
• Great Machete
• Yhorm's Great Machete
• Black Knight Greataxe
• Club
• Mace
• Morning Star
• Drang Hammers
• Reinforced Club
• Warpick
• Great Club
• Claw
• Arstor's Spear
• Spear
• Winged Spear
• Four-Pronged Plow
• Lothric Knight Long Spear
• Great Corvian Scythe
• Witch's Locks
• Farron Greatsword

D-tier - These weapons either lack hyper armor, speed, damage, range, or something else significant which makes them fairly trivial against a good player. Most "Great Weapons" and Daggers fall under this category. There are a few weapons in better classes that are relegated here due to abysmal range or split / poor damage.

• Zweihander
• Greatsword
• Fume Ultra Greatsword
• Profaned Greatsword
• Cathedral Knight Greatsword
• Black Knight Greatsword
• Lorian's Greatsword
• Lothric Knight Greatsword
• Crescent Moon Sword
• Dancer's Enchanted Swords
• Painting Guardian's Curved Sword
• Rotten Ghru Curved Sword
• Winged Knight Twinaxes
• Eleonora
• Greataxe
• Dragonslayer Greataxe
• Demon's Greataxe
• Blacksmith Hammer
• Heysel Pick
• Gargoyle Flame Hammer
• Great Mace
• Large Club
• Vordt's Great Hammer
• Morne's Great Hammer
• Smough's Great Hammer
• Old King's Great Hammer
• Pickaxe
• Dragon Tooth
• Spiked Mace
• Demon's Fist
• Caestus
• Manikin Claws
• Tailbone Spear
• Pike
• Greatlance
• Great Scythe
• Pontiff Knight Great Scythe
• Whip
• Notched Whip
• Spotted Whip
• Dagger
• Parrying Dagger
• Mail Breaker
• Bandit's Knife
• Rotten Ghru Dagger
• Handmaid's Dagger
• Tailbone Short Sword
• Brigand Twindaggers
• Harpe
• Lothric's Holy Sword
• Storm Ruler

E-tier - These weapons sort of make no sense why they are so bad. A lot of them fall victim to split damage, or just having simply less damage than similar weapons for absolutely no reason. There is almost always an alternative, extremely similar weapon that is better.

• Cleric's Candlestick
• Broken Straight Sword
• Scholar's Candlestick
• Wolnir's Holy Sword
• Drakeblood Greatsword
• Greatsword of Judgement
• Dark Hand
• Soldering Iron
• Yorshka's Spear
• Golden Ritual Spear
• Saint Bident
• Great Wooden Hammer

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Whew. That took a while. Let me know if I missed anything, or just your thoughts on...well, my thoughts.

SOURCE