I think there’s a lot of people who’ll defend weapons being only good at one thing, but there are examples of weapons that have thier place and at the same time don’t have one specific attack that gets overused. To me most weapons now fall into a few categories:
The Fun Dynamic Stuff
Halberd, 1H Sword, 1H Mace/Hammer, Tuskgor Spear, Bretonian Longsword, Bretsword+Shield, Great Axe, Elf Sword, Glaive, Elf Spear, Elf Spear+Shield, Rapier+Pistol, Flail, Billhook, Flail+Shield, Holy Great Hammer, Hammer+Tome, Sienna’s Mace, Crowbill.
To get the most out of these weapons, you wouldn’t want to simply spam one or two different attacks. You might have to block-cancel, use specific attack patterns, and chain them together to get the most out of them. They have a much more unique feel, and they don’t get boring as quickly.
For Example, some like the Bretonian Longsword I have developed several attack patterns:
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You can block-cancel and use light attack 1 to attack to quickly eliminate hordes of weaker trash enemies or use light attack 1+2 then block-cancel when the timing works better.
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For strong single-target enemies, you go heavy 1,2,3, then alternate between light 3 and heavy 3 or push-attack then alternate between heavy 3 and light 3.
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For hordes with elites and/or shields mixed in, you can push, then alternate between light 1 and heavy 2 for sweeping attacks.
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Being able to block while holding a heavy attack allows you to safely wind up for attacks on bosses while dodging and taking aggro. It also allows you to do the same against elites which gives you some interesting options when winding up heavy attacks and handling elites.
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At lower skill levels you can just spam light attacks for weaker enemies and do heavy attacks for strong enemies, but you’ll find the lack of cleave and the variance of the attack patterns make it a far better weapon and far more fun to use when you learn how to chain attacks together.
The Overly Simple
Executioner’s Sword, Great Hammer, Dual Daggers, Greatsword, Dual Swords, Elf Greatsword, 1H Axe, Falchion, Sienna’s Dagger, Flaming Flail, Fire Sword.
These kinds of weapons are effective, but you usually just spam a few different kinds of attacks like lights or heavies with a few block/push attacks, and these weapons are overshadowed by weapons that are more dynamic and fun as well as the power creeping stuff.
The Meta Power Creeps
Mace+Sword, Spear+Shield, Dual Hammers, Cog Hammer, Sword+Dagger.
I suppose maybe Fire Sword is also a bit of a power creep weapon on Battle Wiz with Famished Flames and the Unchained; it definitely is pretty boring since you typically only use it to spam heavy 1.
A lot of these DLC dual-wield weapons seem like they’re meant to be like the Dagger+Sword is for Killian, but that just means almost every game I play, that’s all I see being used. These weapons have simple attack patterns and just spam either light or heavy attacks depending on whether you’re fighting elites or trash enemies. They can be fun on classes like Zealot, Slayer, and such just for damage output, but otherwise, they often overshadow the single-handed and shielded weapons which require a bit more skill to use.
The Bad Stuff
War Pick, Dual Axes, Elven Axe.
These weapons are relatively ineffective and boring. I’ll admit the War Pick can be decent on Slayer, and it is a bit dynamic in its use but ultimately less effective than many alternatives for what it’s supposed to do.
The Dual Axes are decent, but they’re only usable on Slayer, and you simply spam light attacks most of the time to use them, but they still fall short of the one-handed axe on Slayer.
Shield Stagger/Push-Attack Spam
Sword+Shield, Mace/Hammer+Shield, Axe+Shield, Tuskgor Spear.
A lot of shielded weapons are mainly for spamming the heavy attack 1 to get temp health. They are all somewhat effective and dynamic, but they can be a bit boring when the gimmick is simply to shield bash a bunch and use the stamina bar as a resource for powerful push-attacks with the hammer/mace.
The spear is similar, but you just spam push-attack and change that up a bit with light 1 to heavy 2. Light attacks aren’t that useful for anything, because heavy attacks 1 and push-attacks do more damage to single targets.
I like these weapons and they don’t get boring as quickly, but they’re not going to get much better with skill since the gimmick is simply to stagger a bunch and use the massive stamina pool. I like to use these weapons with 60% block cost reduction and 60% push/block angle to maximize defense on certain builds.