Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

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Ansalon's One handed melee weapons Tier List
By Ansalon
This list is based on my personal opinion and I haven't tested them all. Quite possible I haven't taken into account all possible synergies so some might be undervalued. All values are ingame values. The wiki is outdated since the 1.2 nerfs. Some of the lower rated weapons can be exceptionally strong in very rare scenarios (for instance vs spirits) but I am mostly rating them for their general usefulness.
   
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Ansalon's One handed melee weapons Tier List
This list is based on my personal opinion and I haven't tested them all. Quite possible I haven't taken into account all possible synergies so some might be undervalued. All values are ingame values. The wiki is outdated since the 1.2 nerfs. Some of the lower rated weapons can be exceptionally strong in very rare scenarios (for instance vs spirits) but I am mostly rating them for their general usefulness.

Link to reddit discussion thread.
S - Tier: Best in Slot. Usually has very good build/class synergies.
  • Pukestabber[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Dagger) - 20% action speed and 20% dmg with dagger attacks while Drunk. Combined with the ring Drunkard's Regret[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] which makes you immune to hangover this is an exceptionally strong dagger. (see u/teesinz Mirke guide) Does start to lose out a lot of bonuses when your party has access to "Incredible Food" over Alcohol. If you want tankiness over damage its possible to grab the Numb enchant (-10% melee dmg recvieced) and combine it with Arrack (-15% dmg recieved).
  • Magran's Favor[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Battle Axe) - 2 All Fire Power Levels and can get either heal or dmg on kills/attacks. Exceptionally strong as a stat stick for an Evocation Wizard or Priest of Magran. Can also make some melee builds around it with for instance Paladins (Flames of Devotion)
  • Kapana Taga[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Club) Deals best of Crush or Slash dmg. +1 Engagement slot and Melee dmg/Accuracy for each Engaged Target. Pretty bonkers in combination with Reckless Brigandine[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] for a tank.
  • Rannig's Wrath[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Rapier) - 10% action speed, +4 melee accuracy. 10% dmg vs Flanked. +1 Penetration for 5 sec on crit. The other optional enchants are also extremly good but more situational. +20 accuracy weapon modal. Only downside is single damage type.
  • Sasha's Singing Scimitar[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Sabre) 2% stacking action speed Aura for each held chanter phrase. Empowering an Invocation fills Chanter's Phrase Count to Max. Exceptionally strong on a Devoted/Skald or melee Troubadour.
  • Stalker's Patience[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Spear) - +10% Damage to Flanked targets (increases with Stealth skill), Hits with this weapon cause 15% Damage as Raw Damage over time. 20% chance to recover immediately on Crit. Still an exceptionally strong wep after 1.2 nerfs.
  • Modwyr[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Sword) 20% damage dealt as burn when above 50% health and and +20% damage dealt as freeze when below 50% health. 2% action speed on hit (stacks 10 times) Immunity to Intellect Afflictions. Bottom's Up 1/encounter: Primary Attack. Stun, +25% dmg dealt as Crush/Shock.Can be upgraded to Legendary after released from its previous owner.
  • Animancer's Energy Blade[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Sabre) - Deals Raw Damage and attacks more quickly than a standard blade. Deals less damage then other sabres but raw damage doesn't get mitigated by armor. Weapon modal is useless. Did some very rough math. Against targets that has normal penetration The dps should be a tiny bit lower then a standard legendary sabre. Since it deals Raw damage it Will be God - Tier against targets who would normally be severely under penned (-75%), easily S - Tier against moderatly underpenned (-50%), A - Tier against Slight under pen (-25%), E - Tier against Normal penetration. (Gets outperformed by a non unique legendary saber), and obviously even worse against overpen (+30%). Keep it as a backup weapon for moderate/severe underpen situations.
  • Xoti's Sickle[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Hatchet) 5% dmg when scoring kill (stacks 4 times), 15% action speed for 10 sec when near slain enemy. Did some testing and at 20 religion each kill increases the damage by roughtly 15% and the action speed after killing a target is 25%. Plus I didnt notice it had dual damage types. Incredible on any class that scores kills easily like Rogue with finishing blow or Barbarians with bloody slaughter. Obviously very weak if there are very few mobs in the encounter.

A - Tier: Very Strong but usually lacks the little extra to bring it to S-tier.
  • Lovers Embrace[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Dagger)- 8 Raw dmg per 6 sec on stealth attacks plus 33% chance to get Frenzy when critting a male target (or female but im guessing there are fewer females in the game) Really strong on a single class rogue that can access a lot of the lategame stealth abilities. Move up a tier if used with Pukestabber.
  • Sun and Moon[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Flail) - +2 Fire Power level during day +2 Frost Power during Night. Would be a S - Tier stat stick if the buffs applied for the entire day. If you can bother to rest so you only fight during the day it is an S-tier stat stick on Evocation Wizard. Golden Sun (Eothas) enchant 25% Burn damage from weapon returns Health. Haven't checked but if it applies from the Burn damage from for instance Flames of Devotion then it's S-tier.
  • Aldris Blade of Capain[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] Crow (Sabre). 10% hit to crit. +10 shock damage on crit. 8 health on crit. 15% dmg as shock. +2 Pen weapon modal. Decent defensive option for crit based dps frontliner
  • Kahua Hozi[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Spear) - Best of Pierce/Slash damage. 10% action speed. 15% damage. +1 engage weapon modal. Dual damage types make this a very strong alternative for a dps frontline.
  • Rust's Poignard[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Stiletto) - Bring Low: 30% chance to knock target prone and lower defense by -10 for 6 sec on crit. 35% dmg to targets affected by Bring Low. 3 Raw dmg per 3s for 9s on hit vs flanked. 3% action speed against flanked on it (stacks 5 times). +2 pen weapon modal. Single damage type and combat mechanics favoring slower weapons keeps it out of S-tier.
  • Griffin's Blade[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Sword) Steadfast AoE when wearer is bloodied. 50% chance to Daze target and nearby enemies on crit. +10% dmg with Spells, +5 Will makes it a very competitive stat stick for a dps caster. Alternatively go for 10% action speed, +5 Reflex if going melee.
  • St. Drogga's Skull[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Sabre) - 20% damage as burn. 20% chance to do AoE burn damage. Not exactly sure how the damage is rolled for the AoE burn proc but after some testing it seems rather strong. This weapon might be S - Tier depending on how that proc is calculated but it is A - Tier at the very least.
  • Watcher's Blade[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Sword) . 15% dmg as Raw. Due to how lash and Raw mechanics work this is extremly effective against a heavy armor target that you are under penetrating. Weaker against targets you overpenetrate, so have other weapons to swap to when needed.
  • Acolyte's Frostbite[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Hatchet) Concentration + AoE frost cone when crit when no allies around. 10% chance to paralyze on crit. 15% dmg as Freeze. Depending on how near the allies have to be for the buff to proc you might have to use it on sole frontliner making it very unflexible. Very useful for solo play. Less useful for party play.
  • Squid's Grasp[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Rapier) Cannot be Flanked. +20% Action Speed when threatened by 3 or more enemies. If defeated within 10 seconds of using Squid's Escape, revive and become Invisible. +20 Accuracy Weapon modal. Decent defensive option for dps frontliner. Very useful for solo play. Less useful for party play.
  • Scordeo's Edge[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Sabre) - Bit hesitant to rate this because I don't know how good the melee/range Scordeo's Edge/trophy swapping synergy would play out. You can enchant it in to pure melee weapon making it C-tier. Possibly better when going One-handed style but doubt it. - 5% chance to ignore recovery for 5 sec on hit. Buff duration does scale with int but procc is too RNG to be consistent (statistically its 1/20 attacks). +2 Accuracy with all weapons for 30s on scoring Hit (stacks 10 times). Apparently you can get multiple stacks if used in combination with AoE effects, making it a lot easier to stack then my initial assessment.
  • Glacierbane[pillarsofeternity2.wiki.fextralife.com] (War Hammer) Serrated: +10% Damage as Raw. +1 Pen after taking Freeze dmg (3 stacks). Quite useful during BoW content since the mobs have a lot of freeze damage, but not that useful outside of it. You can gain the stacks from friendly fire, which means you could potentially proc it yourself. It starts at Superb so you could potentially just pick up the Penetration enchant, use it for BoW content and forgo upgrading it to legendary.
  • Frostfall[pillarsofeternity2.wiki.fextralife.com] (Mace, stat stick) - Forged in Ice: Deals best of Crush/Freeze. Blessed by the void: 25% chance to apply Tier 1 Affliction to a nearby target when hit by an affliction. Encroaching Frost: Critical Hits have a 10% chance to freeze the enemy for 4s. Dispersed Suffering: On kill, the duration of Hostile Status Effects on nearby enemies are increased by 20%. Weapon is discussed in this thread[forums.obsidian.net]. This weapon is really hard to rate. Both Encroaching Frost and Dispersed suffering proccs on spells, making it a potentially powerful stat stick. Atm it seems to be bugged and Status effects are increased by 50% instead of 20% (Patch 2.0). Best used on a spellcaster with a party that applies a lot of status effects on the enemies. Needs more testing after it is bug fixed to determine its true value.
B - Tier: Mostly good proccs or good stats. Not enough build/class synergy to bring it higher.
  • Marux Amanth[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Dagger) - 10% Chance to deal Burn AoE on Hit, Quick to Slaughter +2 Penetration for a duration per combat at the start of the encounter, Grants Worthy Sacrifice. I haven't tested it myself but soulbound not beeing upgraded to legendary hurts a lot. Move up a tier if used with Pukestabber.
  • Endre's Flog of Obedience[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Flail) - 10% chance to apply Frightened on hit, +2 Pen against Mind affliction targets. Decent on a melee Cipher to lower Will.
  • Sungrazer[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Flail) - 10% chance to recover instantly on Hit, 2 sec Stun on hit, 25% dmg as burn and -1 Crush Armor Rating on Critical Hit. Decent for a Crit oriented build.
  • Bardatto's Luxury[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Mace) - 10% chance to Sicken target for 10 sec on hit, 10% chance Fit for 10 sec on self on scoring hit. Immunity to Con afflictions when above 50%. -1 armor for 10 sec weapon modal- Fairly decent for a tank
  • Beza's Toothed Blade[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Sabre) - 2 Armour Rating for 30s on Critical Hit. Can help setup overpen for your entire party
  • Min's Fortune[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Sabre) Stacking +2% Crit chance on Hit (stacks 50 times and resets on Crit). +15% crit dmg. Fairly good on a high crit build. Single damage type keeps it from beeing A-tier on Devoted.
  • Tarn's Respite[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Sabre) +1 Penetration, +15% Damage as Freeze, -1 target Deflection for 60 sec on Hit (stacks 10 times). Takes too long to stack deflection debuff for it to be rated higher.
  • Mohora Tanga[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Spear) - +1 Pen, 5% melee dmg (increases with Survival Skill) 5 raw bleed per 3s for 9s on crit, plus decent 1/rest active. Was very strong pre 1.2 now just decent.
  • Duskfall[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Sword) - +1 pen when attacking same target as ally, 10% action speed, 10% crit dmg or 25% misses to grazes (high acc favors crit, low acc miss to graze). 15 acc, 10% dmg to first attack made in combat. Decent weapon for Soul Blades to try to get a crit so they can dump focus into Soul Annilation.
  • Last Word[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] - (Warhammer) +1 Enemies Engaged. 5% weapon dmg per engaged enemy. Target cannot use active abilities for 3 sec on crit. Good Synergy with Reckless Brigandine[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com]
C - Tier: Decent Weapons. Usually Suboptimal stat/procs or poor synergy
  • Shattered Vengeance[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Club) 33% chance to apply a stacking curse on the target, increasing their damage received by 5%. Assuming it stacks forever It's probably decent in boss fights but for the most part pretty meh.
  • Ball and Chain[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Flail) Knockdown target on crit, 10% chance to recover immediately when crit and free self/allies from dex/ might affliction (once per encounter) Decent 1h for tanks just much better alternatives.
  • Skullcrusher[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Flail) 10% chance to Daze for 10 sec and Prone on Hit. Empowered abilities apply Injury on target. Decent on tanks. Assuming the Injury applies on bosses it can be very powerful in those instances.
  • Gladiator Sword [pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com](Sword) - 10% melee dmg, +5 deflection when worn with a shield. +1 Pen. Ok for a 1h/shield tank but rather have increased defenses since tanks doesn't really deal much damage anyways. Good on certain 1h& shield dps builds like my Barbarian/Hellwalker.
  • Resounding Call[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Warhammer) - 50% chance to cast random mind affliction for 8 sec on crit. Bell Ringer 2/rest (upgraded version of Rogue Strike the bell) Mind affliction can be Rank 1-3 so its a pretty decent debuff. If resting between every fight this can be considered atleast A-tier at low levels when you dont have many Ability Uses since Bell Ringer is a fairly strong active ability.
D - Tier: Too Conditional (only good against specific enemy types) Can be A-tier against that specific type though.
  • Magistrate's Cudgel[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Mace) - 3 sec stun on crit. Random Tier 1 inspiration when afflicted. Low lvl Kith instakilled on crits. Pretty useless if played on upscaling bump up a tier otherwise. Soulbound not getting legendary makes this fairly bad.
  • Grave Calling[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Sabre) - +2% Freeze damage for 60.0 sec on Hit (stacks 15 times). Takes way too long to stack up to be very useful. 15 accuracy against Vessles makes it good vs them. There is also some strong chanter synergy where you can summon creatures and kill them off with the weapons alternative enchant, to create infinite adds. Example build here[forums.obsidian.net].
  • Azure Blade[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Stiletto) - +15 Accuracy when 3 or more allies are within 2 m. Very unreliable and have to build a frontline heavy team just to make it work
  • Hel Beckoning[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Sword) - Stacking corrode dot and accuracy vs Spirits. Veil Piercing means it's extremly strong vs spirits. There is also some strong chanter synergy where you can summon creatures and kill them off with the weapons alternative enchant, to create infinite adds. Example build here[forums.obsidian.net].
  • Whispers of Yenwood[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Sword) - 25% miss to graze, 10% hit to crit. +20% Damage against Spirits, +15 Accuracy against Spirits. Very strong vs spirits Not very good otherwise.
E - Tier: Just no.
  • Matakau[pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com] (Battle Axe) +1 Penetration against Vessel targets. Not even that great against Vessels.
  • Vion-ceth [pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com](Hatchet) +20% Melee Damage to Plant targets and targets with Plant status effect. C-tier in combination with a Druid/Ranger to set it up for you. Useless without.
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2 Comments
Bill Nye The Science Guy 21 Feb, 2022 @ 12:49pm 
kapana taga is S but last word is B?
nocoastx221 12 Nov, 2018 @ 12:09am 
TY for writing this guide, but some of the +/- seem wrong to me... and they are not always used to separate, so slightly confusing.. Please proofread your work. Felt like I was reading an armor guide for Baldurs Gate 1. I'm glad that I'm not the only one who said WTF to Vion-Ceth.